


We'll Walk This Road Together, Like We've Always Done

by Yep_Klance



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Eventual Smut, Fluff, Gay or Demisexual Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, James Griffin Shall Receive A Punch, Just two boys slowly falling in love!, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Orphan Keith (suggested), Pre-Canon, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, childhood friends to lovers au, dads!Adashi, they switch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-28 15:26:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 45,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17185562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yep_Klance/pseuds/Yep_Klance
Summary: When seven-year-old Keith, after three years of living in an orphanage, is adopted by Shiro and Adam, he comes eye-in-eye with a wonderfully cheerful and energetic boy of his age, Lance. Lance's newfound and constant presence changes Keith's life in ways he could've never imagined. The two become inseparable, and over the span of about ten years find themselves slowly falling in love...





	1. From The Day We Met

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ScarlettBeat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarlettBeat/gifts).



> Hello! This is my Secret Santa present for my dear friend Scarlett, who I met in the wonderful Klance Discord. It's been a blast to write this story about two characters that I love so much!! I got very attached to them throughout these few months. I really hope you like it, Scarlett! <3
> 
> This is my first published fanfiction, and I'm nervous and excited to post it! I want to thank my two friends Liz and Alec (respectively donttrusttheclogs and alecunshaded on AO3, please check them out!) for reading it beforehand and giving me amazing advice and comments that made working on this so much more fun and hilarious, love you guys!
> 
> Feel free to let me know what you thought of the fic/chapters in the comments! <3

There were many, many things Lance McClain had given Keith. Not necessarily tangible, material things (although that is up for discussion), but more… things Keith might not have found if it wasn’t for him.

Keith was an orphan. At least for as far as he knew. His dad had passed away a hero, saving a family from a burning building, and his mother… he didn’t know what exactly had happened to her. She had just… disappeared, and his father had never told him why. He only knew that shortly after his father’s death he was suddenly placed in a grey, cheerless building, surrounded by other children who were more, or less cheerless than the too large rooms and the cold walls. As he grew older, Keith realised that little from his time in the orphanage had remained in his memory.

Although there was one memorable moment in all those years. He remembered it as a light that lit up at the end of the dark, endless tunnel that was his mind – and it was all thanks to the visit of two men.

Each time a new couple or parent arrived to adopt a child, all the kids were ordered to present themselves at their best: wear their neat clothes, comb their hair, smile at the visitors and throw around any compliment that a child of under the age of ten could think of in order to gain their favouritism. After all, everyone wanted to find a new family.

Keith, however, hardly cared about what happened to him. Losing both his parents had numbed him to the core, and it was difficult to find things that could cheer him up. After all, he had spent every day with his parents in fulfilling bliss when they were still by his side. Because of this, Keith always paid little attention to how he looked, couldn’t care for showing a smile, and _definitely_ didn’t compliment strangers in order to bootlick himself into a new home. As consequence, Keith was never chosen.

But Shiro and Adam, which were the names with which the men introduced themselves, were unlike the usual visitors. They spoke to every child and smiled warmly at all of them. That was nothing new, but when they came to Keith, who remained silent with crossed arms, they were _still_ warm and kind, whereas many other visitors wouldn’t even talk to him because of his attitude. Shiro and Adam tried to connect somewhat with Keith, but didn’t succeed much. At least, that is what Keith assumed, since he had uttered at most two whole words during their conversation.

His surprise couldn’t be bigger when the men went to the lady of the house, a middle-aged woman with a strict face and her hair tied in a grey bun, and asked her about him.

“Keith?” he heard the woman say. “He’s a bit of a discipline case. I’m not sure whether he would be fit for emplacement as he is right now.”

The young boy felt his heart sink. Of course that’s what she would say. He didn’t get along with the other children, he had a short temper and was hard to handle and to talk to. Not to mention that so far nobody had shown any interest in him.

“We think he would be fit for our household.”

Keith’s head jerked up at the stern tone of the man’s voice. Zero hesitation lied in those words. It sounded as if they wouldn’t accept no for an answer, that if the lady of the house was going to argue any further, they would shut down all her complaints – that was the silent message Keith had heard in that one sentence.

The lady probably heard it too, since she shrugged in surrender and gestured the men to follow her to her office.

And before Keith knew it, he was standing in front of a lovely, friendly-looking, freestanding house, in an adorable neighbourhood that didn’t look too elite, nor too shabby, somewhere on the outskirts of San Diego.

“Welcome Keith,” Shiro said, with the kindest smile Keith had seen in years, “to your new home.”

The light in his mental tunnel that had started flickering when Adam and Shiro had entered the orphanage grew a little bigger when he stepped over the threshold and into the living room. The interior of the place looked just as friendly as the house had seemed on the outside: there were two soft, green couches, a big flat screen TV, an aquarium that adorned almost half of one of the light beige walls, and most striking, a large showcase filled with shining cups, medals, and a picture of the two current residents smiling happily with their arms around each other.

Keith stared at the showcase for several seconds, before Adam gently took him by the shoulder. “Shall we go take a look at your room?”

The three climbed the stairs, which were right in front of him when they’d entered: Adam first, Keith following and Shiro closing the line. Adam led Keith to one of the rooms close to the top of the stairs.

“That door over there leads to ours,” Adam said. “Feel free to enter if you need us, or when you would prefer not to sleep alone – for anything really. You’ll always be welcome. C’mon, let’s go look at yours.”

He opened the door to Keith’s chamber and let Keith enter first. His room was pleasantly spacious. From his spot in the doorframe he could look through a wide window, which was currently giving way to the rays of the late-afternoon sun, which fell on a starry carpet on the wooden floor. Against the left wall stood a single bed with bright red covers; a small desk was placed against the wall on the opposite side, accompanied by a blue office chair, and behind the bed, on his left behind the open-swung door, was a wardrobe. On his right, in the corner, was a large chest.

“We collected some toys,” Shiro explained when he saw Keith looking. “Of course we weren’t sure what you’d like and whether you would bring something yourself, so feel free to take a look and make anything you like your own.”

Keith’s gaze moved to the tall man behind him, touched by the kindness but not entirely sure if and how he should convey the feeling.

But it seemed to be fine as it was. Shiro kneeled down, pressing his hand lightly on Keith’s back. “Have a look!”

As Keith slowly shuffled to the large chest, dragging his bag behind him, Adam said: “Takashi, how about we let Keith unpack and explore his room for a bit, and we’ll wait for him downstairs?”

“Sounds good. What do you think, Keith?”

Keith looked over his shoulder and nodded, few emotions on his face.

“Alright, take your time then. When you’re finished, feel free to join us in the kitchen, which you’ll find behind the door right of the stairs when you head down.”

“Should we tell Keith that we bought a large chocolate cake, or should we keep that a surprise?”

“Let’s keep it a surprise, no?”

“Splendid idea.” Adam looked at Keith, who was staring over his shoulder with big eyes, as if he wanted to say something. The man winked. “You didn’t hear anything we just said.”

While Keith hesitantly turned to them, still mustering up the courage to reply that it was in no way a surprise anymore and that they should have discussed the topic outside, the two men left his bedroom with satisfied grins.

Little Keith blinked, unsure what to think, and slowly returned his attention to the chest, which he opened with slight effort. Inside were many different kinds of toys, from cars to dolls to colouring pencils and stuffed animals. It struck him how many toys he saw had to do with space: rockets and planes and little astronaut figures… Keith glanced back at the carpet for a second, and somehow got a feeling that the two men who had adopted him were fans of space.

~

After eating the delicious cake – Keith was sure he had never tasted anything like it – Adam and Shiro took him outside. “To meet your new neighbours,” they had said.

Admittedly, Keith was not unfamiliar with being surrounded by many people. However, he _was_ unfamiliar with all of those many people looking at _him_. And perhaps even more so, he was unfamiliar with so many people _smiling_ at him.

“How lovely to meet you, Keith,” said a short, plump woman with curly brown hair and a beaming smile on her face. She extended her hand towards him, which Keith reluctantly shook. He hadn’t felt this shy in a long while. “We are thrilled to have you as our new neighbour! Let me introduce you to my parents, my husband, my daughters, and my sons.” As she presented each of her family members in front of him, who all shook his hand and introduced themselves by telling him their names, the mother seemed to realise something. “Wait, where is Little Lance?”

The brothers and sisters all looked about, but shook their heads in ignorance.

“Mama, mama, look! I found a big beetle!”

Everyone turned to look, as a little boy of around Keith’s height stormed from the garden towards the company.

“Oh thank gosh, there you are, Lance. Come over here, there is someone you have to meet!”

“Eww, please keep that insect far away from me,” the daughter called Rachel said as Lance stopped next to her, leaning away from her little brother with a disgusted look on her face.

“Mom, did you just call me Little Lance again?” Lance said with a pout, ignoring his sister.

“Well, you sure are very little,” the daughter named Veronica said, adjusting her glasses.

“I am not little!” Lance exclaimed. Placing his hands on his hips, he spoke ceremoniously, “I am the cool, tall space explorer!”

“Alright little explorer, that’s enough now. Look who’s here? It’s your new neighbour!” The mother gently took the little boy by his upper arms and placed him in front of Keith, just like she had done with the rest of her family.

Suddenly Keith stared in a small face with short brown hair and lively blue eyes. “I reckon that he is about your age now. Perhaps you two can become friends,” Lance’s mom continued.

Lance looked Keith up and down for a few nerve-wrecking seconds, and suddenly smiled so brightly that his eyes closed. “Hello Keith! I’m Lance!”

And as those happy eyes opened again, gazing with interest in Keith’s, it suddenly felt as if the light in Keith’s mental tunnel had become brighter than the sun, and had started warming him from the inside.

~

Shiro and Adam had decided to let Keith get adjusted to his new home for several days. Every day they cooked delicious meals for him, tried to have casual conversations with him, and let him roam around the house. Every single day, Keith discovered a new thing he liked about his new situation.

The first day, it was the large aquarium. There were hundreds of small little fish, in all colours of the rainbow and shining like jewels, which moved their bodies through the water with a tranquility that calmed Keith down each time he looked at it. For this reason, he often found himself with his little hands and nose pressed against the glass, following the fish with his eyes for minutes on end.

The second day, it was a little toy from his chest, a rocket that made a cool sound when he pressed a little button on the side, while the bottom of the body tube flickered an orange-red, like fire. His eyes sparkled when he discovered it, and he spent the next few hours flying the rocket through his entire room. Afterwards, he bounced down the stairs to show it to Shiro and Adam, but as he found Adam reading the newspaper on the couch, all grown-up and serious, he suddenly lost his courage, and cautiously climbed the steps again.

The third day, it was movie nights.

“We do this every Friday,” Adam told Keith as Shiro kneeled in front of the TV to put a DVD in the player. “One of us chooses a movie and we’ll watch it with all of us.”

“We want to show you our favourite Disney movie tonight, Keith,” Shiro said as he got up and took the remote. “Next week it will be your turn, so choose something good!”

Keith nodded, while Shiro placed himself on his right, so that Keith was nestled between the two big men. It was exceptionally warm and comfortable.

The movie they had inserted was called Treasure Planet, and after a few minutes Keith was completely engulfed in the story. The drawings of space baffled him, and especially the space whales made him excited. Jim Hawkins, the protagonist, was super cool and brave, although he didn’t seem very happy in the beginning of the movie. Keith felt his heart hurt a little when Jim’s father left him, and he tried hard not to think about his own parents. Apparently it was written on his face, because Shiro put his arm around Keith’s shoulders, pulled him a little closer and presented his bowl of popcorn, which Keith hesitantly took a handful from.

Throughout the story, Jim smiled more and more, and at the end he and his family lived happily ever after. Despite Silver’s betrayal, he truly seemed to care for Jim and warmed up to the boy, just as Jim warmed up to him. Keith hoped it would be like that for him too, with Adam and Shiro.

The fourth day, it was the garden. It was square, beautiful, and huge. There were many flowers, and there was a huge tree at the back, which Keith would love to climb one day. He met a little cat who he immediately befriended, petting its tiny head and soft fur. He stayed with the cat until it was dinner time, all the time listening to its soft purrs and feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

On the fifth day, it was Lance.

Keith was roaming around the house, hoping to see the cat again. Shiro and Adam had allowed him to go wherever he wanted, as long as he didn’t cross the road or went further than two houses on either side of theirs. He had been walking outside for a couple of minutes when the door of the house next to his opened.

“Aw, c’mon Luis! Are we not gonna play?”

“I’m sorry Lance, I promised Kevin I’d hang out with him today.”

The oldest brother just exited the house, little Lance bouncing after him.

“But then when will we play?” Lance asked with a pout.

“How about when I get back?”

“But you always stay out until very late…”

“Then you’d better still be awake when I return.” Luis ruffled Lance’s brown hair and winked, before he walked to one of the cars parked near the street.

“Okaaay,” Lance said, burying his hands in his pockets. “Mama would get mad if she heard you.”

“I’ll take full responsibility if she discovers our little plan,” Luis said, taking the front seat in his car. “See ya later, little bro!”

“Bye!” Lance waved.

And as Luis’ car exited the street, Lance gazed around the neighbourhood and his eyes landed on Keith. A happy smile spread across his face, and he immediately started making his way over. Keith quickly searched for a place to hide, but since there were none, he was shortly after fully submitted to an actual ray of sunshine.

“Hello Keith!” Lance said. “Remember me? The name’s Lance!”

Keith nodded. How could he forget? The fire inside his mental tunnel was still burning brightly thanks to this boy.

Suddenly Lance hopped to his side and took his arm. “My mama says that we should bond.”

“B-bond?” Keith stuttered.

“Yes! Then we’ll become the best of friends.”

As he started pulling Keith along, the latter worriedly said, “W-where are we going?”

Lance grinned at him. “Somewhere where we can bond!”

A few minutes later, Keith found himself in the back of Lance’s garden, in front of a tree like the one in his own. For some reason, this tree had a ladder of ropes attached to it, which led from a place higher up in the tree towards the bottom of the trunk. Keith couldn’t see where the ladder would lead to, since it disappeared between the bright green Spring leaves.

“Come on,” Lance said, grabbing the ladder and directing his gaze at Keith, “Luis and I built this a year ago, it’s awesome!”

And without waiting for Keith’s reply, he started climbing.

Keith hesitated for several seconds, wondering whether it wouldn’t be better if he just went back home, but since he was also extremely curious to what Lance and his brother could’ve built high in a tree, he eventually grabbed the ladder too and followed Lance up.

When his head popped through a square trapdoor, he found himself in a wonderful, wooden cabin, filled with pillows, blankets, and comic books. The roof was pointy, the walls each contained a small square window, and the floor was covered by a fluffy brown rug. Lance had already flopped down in one of the two red beanbags, holding a bag of cookies. He had turned on a bunch of little lights that were stood on small tables on either side of him.

“Welcome to the best treehouse in the world!”

Keith pulled himself up and stood up, still gazing with wonder through the cosy hut. Lance and his brother had actually _made this_? It was the most incredible thing Keith had seen in… well, a few days, since the marvelousness of the aquarium was still fresh in his mind.

“Have a seat,” Lance said, as if he invited people here for tea on the daily, gesturing to the free beanbag next to him. Keith placed himself in the bag, and immediately sank so deeply through the material that he thought he would disappear. He heard Lance giggle as he scrambled back up and readjusted his position. As soon as he was comfortable, the bag of cookies was held right in front of his nose. “Take one,” Lance said. Keith did so.

“So, whatcha think? Isn’t this cool?” Lance said with shining eyes, gesturing through the hut. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever made, though I’m planning on building my own spaceship one day and fly to the moon. Luis and me are super proud of it.”

‘Spaceship’? Man, was everyone in this neighbourhood a fan of space?

“Have you ever seen such an awesome treehouse before? Tell me you haven’t,” Lance said, leaning towards Keith and smirking.

Keith, taken aback, replied with a soft, “I – I haven’t.”

“I knew it! I’m sure this is the coolest treehouse ever made.”

Keith wasn’t sure how to reply to that, so he just picked up one of the many comic books that were scattered over the floor.

“That’s my favourite,” Lance said. “The main character is so cool.”

“Really?” Keith asked, looking back at Lance’s sparkling eyes. He nodded enthusiastically.

“Let me know what you think, okay?”

Keith nodded in return and opened the book on the first page. Lance grabbed one from the floor as well and stared reading.

They sat like that for some hours, just reading and not saying much. Despite the chatty first impression he had made on Keith, Lance could apparently be very calm and quiet as well.

Slowly, Keith relaxed completely, sinking deeper and deeper into the beanbag and engulfing himself completely in the story. It wasn’t until he was nearing the last few pages that they were suddenly awakened out of their peaceful concentration.

“Lance? Are you up there?”

Keith jolted big time, while Lance looked up calmly. It was his mother. He went up to one of the square windows and looked down.

“Hi mom!”

“Hi honey! Is Keith by any chance there?”

“He is! He is my honoured guest.”

“How sweet of you to invite him! Can you tell him that Shiro and Adam are waiting for him with dinner?”

“Oh shit,” Keith exclaimed. He’d completely forgotten the time – and his stomach as well. He hadn’t even noticed how hungry he’d gotten.

“I’ll tell him!” Lance said, and he returned to Keith. “You probably heard her.”

Keith nodded, hurriedly placing the comic book on the little table next to the beanbag and jumping up.

Lance giggled softly. “Calm down, calm down! I’m sure they’re not mad!”

Perhaps, but Keith had experienced many times how angry adults could get if you just forgot the time. It wasn’t fun.

Therefore he quickly climbed down the ladder, but before he sprinted out of the garden, he halted and turned around, where Lance was looking at him with his hands in his pockets.

“Uhm. I…” Keith pointed to the treehouse, not sure how to convey that he had actually enjoyed himself.

But Lance didn’t seem to need any words. He smiled brightly, said, “You’re welcome!”, waved, and went back to his house. “I’ll see you again, Keith!”

Keith, glad he didn’t have to say any more than he had done in order for Lance to get what he meant, quickly turned around and sprinted to his own house. He entered the dinner room with a stomach full of nerves instead of hunger, afraid for how the two men would react.

“Hey, it’s Keith!” he heard Shiro say as he carefully pushed open the door. He peeked around the wood and saw Shiro and Adam sitting at the dinner table, a boiling pot of stew in front of them.

“Welcome back, Keith,” Adam said with a smile. “We heard you were at Lance’s?”

Keith came inside, nodding nervously. He was prepared for the shouting, or a painful tick on his hand, but as he warily joined the men, nothing happened.

“Was it fun?” Shiro asked. “What did you guys do?”

“He – he showed me his treehouse,” Keith answered, still slightly nervous.

“Are you serious? He’s never even let us up there!” Adam exclaimed.

“He always says it’s just for ‘special guests’,” Shiro added, making air quotation marks with his fingers.

Keith blinked in surprise. “Really?”

“Really,” Adam said. “Now you _have_ to tell us what it’s like.”

“It’s – it’s big,” Keith said, his heart speeding up, but in a positive way this time. “There are beanbags and comic books and windows.”

“Really? That sounds awesome,” Shiro said. “Give us all the details during a full plate of stew.” He took Keith’s plate and served the food.

Keith didn’t understand well what was happening, but he had received the message that Shiro and Adam were far from mad at him, which filled him with so much happiness that he was scared to express it.

He gave the men the details without looking them in the face, but he could feel the warm blush of happiness on his cheeks. Lance had truly given him a good day today.

~

But Keith was extremely shy to see Lance again after that. He remained holed up in his house for about a week, scared he would cross his neighbour in the streets. It was mainly because he was scared that Lance didn’t want to invite him again. After all, he hadn’t said much to Lance during their previous meeting. He might still have ruined it, despite Lance’s smile!

No… maybe it wasn’t truly that. Maybe he was a little wary of how many feelings Lance made Keith experience. From the few times he’d seen him, he knew that he was impressed by Lance, or intimidated, or both, he wasn’t sure. Maybe it was purely because Lance was the first person of his age who had actually been nice to him in the past few years, which had thrown him completely off kilter. Anyway, he was shy and a little scared, and therefore he made sure he wasn’t seeing Lance for some days.

On Wednesday, Shiro and Adam called Keith to join them in the living room. He was holding his little rocket toy when he sat down on the couch with them. He felt stronger with it by his side.

So far, Shiro and Adam had shown Keith nothing but kindness, but he was still careful; adults were unpredictable, after all.

“We’ve been thinking,” Shiro started after he’d sat down, “how would you like to go to school?”

School? That didn’t sound like a great idea. At least the school at the orphanage hadn’t been fun at all (but everything there wasn’t fun, so that didn’t say much). Naturally, he had always sat alone and didn’t interact much with his classmates. It’s not like truly _bad_ stuff had happened, but it wasn’t fun either.

“I don’t know,” Keith answered. Apparently they could read on his face how he was feeling, because Adam leaned a bit closer and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“There’s a school at the end of the street, there are some nice children from the neighbourhood who go there. Why don’t you give it a try, and if you don’t like it, you come back home?”

That didn’t sound so bad. He could just try it. It would make sense that he was gonna have to do _something_ during the day; he couldn’t keep spending his days looking at the fish and flying with his rocket and actively avoiding Lance, as much as he’d like to. His dad has always told him it was good to learn many things and to become very smart. If he did that, Keith would be able to do whatever he wanted later in life.

And thus he nodded. “Okay.”

They decided that Keith was gonna have his first school day on the coming Monday.

~

“Why don’t you introduce yourself?” The teacher’s voice was kind, but in that very moment Keith disliked her _a lot_. He wished she’d just let him go to whatever seat was available and not look anyone in the eyes for the next few hours until school was over. “Come on,” the teacher’s voice said softly and encouragingly.

“I’m Keith…” he mumbled.

“Hello Keith,” the entire class responded in unison.

“Keith! Keith, I’m here!”

That was a voice Keith recognised and he quickly looked up. There was Lance, standing on one leg, the knee of his other leaning on the seat of his chair, his hand in the air, and the happiest smile Keith had thus far seen on him. And Lance did nothing but smile, so that said a lot.

Keith felt his cheeks heat up, but still he had never been happier to see a familiar face. His entire body was eager to run to that chair and place himself safely next to someone he only knew for two weeks.

“Lance has saved you a seat, isn’t that sweet of him?” the teacher smiled at Keith. “Go sit down, and we’ll start the class.”

Keith nodded at her and swiftly made his way to Lance.

Lance flopped onto his chair when Keith sat down next to him.

“I knew you were coming!” Lance said, propping his hands under his chin and beaming at Keith. “I asked mom to tell miss Jeany that you should join our class once you came to school and she made sure that you would be placed with us!”

Keith felt a soft tap on his shoulder. He turned around and looked at a round, friendly face, with dark hair and a yellow bandana to keep it in place. “Hello there Keith, I’m Hunk.” The boy extended his hand, which Keith hesitantly shook. “Glad you’re finally here. Lance has been sitting next to an empty chair for two weeks.”

Keith blinked and looked at Lance, whose cheeks turned slightly pink. He crossed his arms and glared at Hunk. “I – I just thought it would be nice! How would you feel if you came to a new class and would have to sit alone on the first day…”

“Yeah yeah, I meant it in a good way!” Hunk said with a knowing smile. “It was very nice of you!”

Keith didn’t really get it, so he looked questioningly at Lance, who glanced back at him reluctantly. Then he sighed in defeat. “I didn’t know when you’d be coming, but I wanted you to at least sit next to someone you knew once you finally joined our class,” Lance explained. The confession clearly made him flustered. He was shy, he was pouting, and he was cute. So so cute. “James and Pidge made fun of me for it…”

“Dude,” said the small, glasses-wearing girl next to Hunk, “who bribes his neighbour into sitting in another chair so that he can sit next to someone who’s not even there for the first two weeks?”

Lance’s face turned even redder.

“Don’t tease him, Pidge,” Hunk said. “You know Lance meant well and I didn’t mind changing seats!”

So that meant that Lance had been sitting alone since the day they’d met each other.

Keith felt his chest bloom with a wonderful feeling of gratitude. Perhaps it had been a small, or perhaps even laughable act in the eyes of Lance’s classmates, but to Keith this little action meant the world. He hadn’t been looking forward to his first day at school, but Lance just made every minute of stress worthwhile. That Lance had been this excited to sit next to him… He felt extremely special at that moment. He wanted to let him know he was grateful. But… how?

“Can I borrow your eraser for a bit?”

“Sure thing.”

“Thank you.”

Oh, maybe that was the way. He looked Lance in the eyes and copied the words he’d just heard the person on the seat in front of him say: “Thank you.”

Lance’s blush slowly disappeared and his smile returned beautifully, relieved that Keith saw it the same way as Hunk. “You’re welcome. Let’s have a great time together, Keith!”

~

School wasn’t half as bad as Keith had feared. Lance was by his side for the entire first day, showing him the corridors, the schoolyard and the playground. He had lunch together with Keith, repeatedly asking if he wanted to try one of the garlic knots his mother had made for him. Keith didn’t understand why Lance was being so nice to him, but he didn’t hate it. In fact, Lance’s presence had caused the fire within Keith to root itself deep inside him, so that it was burning almost all the time.

And not only on the first day was Lance by his side. He stayed next to him for the rest of the week, and later for the rest of the month. When Keith expressed the fear that Lance wasn’t spending enough time with his other friends, Lance waved a hand at him. “Don’t worry, don’t worry! They know that my mom asked me to take care of you, so they’re ready to meet you whenever you are.”

“Your mother asked that?” Keith placed his fork on his plate. “Why?”

“Well...” Lance saw the look on Keith’s face and hesitated for a moment. “Please don’t be mad. My mom heard from your dads that you were shy, and asked me to make sure you would have a good time here.”

Keith hadn’t noticed that he was holding his breath, but after hearing Lance’s words, he let it go. So… only that he was shy, huh, and nothing of the rest? That was… good, yes, that was good. Somehow, he didn’t want everyone to know that he was an orphan. Lance must’ve known, right? Since Shiro and Adam adopted him? Did Shiro and Adam tell Lance’s mom that Keith had trouble connecting with others? Was that why she asked Lance to take care of him?

“But – but it’s not like I don’t like being with you!” Lance said quickly, when Keith didn’t respond. “I like talking with you and eating with you, a lot!” Lance smiled reassuringly at Keith. “Even though you don’t always say much in return.” He chuckled.

“Sorry…” Keith said. “I’ve… I’m not good at talking to people.”

Keith wasn’t looking at Lance, but Lance was definitely looking at Keith. Compassion was the only emotion on his face. “Hey, don’t worry about it. There’s nothing wrong with not being good at it.”

“The other children in the orphanage were mean to me because of it,” Keith admitted, with pain in his heart. It was why he had gotten into so many fights.

“They were?” Lance asked. “That’s so… so mean!”

It was mean, but for some reason Keith could understand. From the moment he was alone, he’d lost sight of the value of connecting to others. So he just… didn’t. No one understood that, though. Not even the adults. After realising that not connecting with people made others bully him, he had never had the courage to try it again.

“Being bad at talking to people doesn’t make you a bad person.” Keith looked up. Lance was gazing at him with confident eyes. “You’re not hurting anyone with it.” He smiled. “I think you’re very nice, Keith. Maybe they just don’t understand you.”

“But… you do understand me?” Keith asked unsure.

“I think so? For as far as I know, you’re one of the nicest boys I know. You don’t think so?”

Keith’s eyes widened. “I – I haven’t really thought about it.”

“I’ve never seen you being mean to anyone,” Lance explained. “Even if I talk so much that you feel like throwing something at me, you never do.”

“N-no, of course not! Why would I?”

“People have made fun of me for talking a lot,” Lance said. “They called me ‘Tweety’, you know, the bird?”

“B-but, Tweety is cute…” Keith mumbled.

Lance smiled. “See? This is what I mean! You’re nice. I don’t understand why someone would bully someone when they are nice.”

“Sometimes being nice is not enough,” Keith responded, yet still not entirely convinced whether he was truly such a nice person as Lance painted him here.

“Well. It should be. Here, have another garlic knot.”

Keith let Lance put his food on his plate, and he thanked him.

~

After that conversation, it became easier for Keith to talk to Lance in return, to answer his questions with more words and to respond more lively to the things Lance told him. Soon, they found themselves by each other’s side 24/7. When Lance asked him if he wanted to meet his friends, Keith felt courageous enough to do it. Lance took him to Hunk and Pidge, and let him officially introduce himself. Afterwards, even though they were with the four of them during class and recess more regularly, Keith and Lance were often alone after school hours. The fact that they were neighbours, helped a lot with that.

Keith noticed that he didn’t find it uncomfortable to be so close to Lance all the time. Lance never asked any probing questions, never downtalked someone else, never took Keith or their friendship for granted, which made Keith feel like he was never _obliged_ to be with Lance, which actually only encouraged him to do so. Lance was just a cheerful, cute boy who loved to tell stories and just chatted a bit too much about his life. Not in an annoying or bragging way, though. He just told Keith many things about his family and his world.

Keith found it enlightening, and often found himself listening intently.

It was Lance’s natural, unexpecting attitude that made Keith feel safe enough to tell about himself.

“My mom left me when I was two years old.”

Lance looked up with a soft, “Really?”

Keith nodded, gazing at the rocket in his hands.

They were sitting in the tree at the end of Keith’s garden. After discovering it, the two boys had spent many hours there, just talking and chilling – even more than in the treehouse.

“Do you still remember her?” Lance asked.

“Not very vividly,” Keith answered, and it was clear that that realisation hurt him. “But I wish that I did.”

“And… your dad?”

Keith lowered his head. This was the first time he’d ever told anyone about this. Not even Adam and Shiro knew in detail how Keith had ended up in the orphanage.

“He died in a fire when I was four.”

Lance shuffled a little bit closer to him.

“That can’t have been easy.”

“It was awful,” Keith responded. “It was as if nothing had meaning anymore. I ended up in an orphanage where no one was nice to me, not even the supervisors.”

“Shit…” Lance said softly. “Did you ever smile?”

“I don’t think so,” Keith said. “Nothing in there was fun.”

“Were there no toys?”

“There were, but they were boring.”

Lance lowered his head and looked at his hands. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like, losing your parents and ending up in such a place.”

Keith didn’t reply. There were hardly words to describe how he had felt all those years. He had never known how it was to live in a warm and big family like Lance’s. He had known the feeling of being loved, but just as powerful had he felt the pain of not being loved, and it had left its marks deep.

Suddenly Lance hopped one hop closer towards him on the branch, and kissed him on the cheek.

Keith looked up, nothing but surprise on his face.

Lance turned a little red but smiled brightly nonetheless. “It’s because from now on, you’re part of my family!”

Keith blinked, unsure. “I am?”

“This is a gesture of confirmation,” Lance said, making a fist with his hand. “That from now on you’re officially my family.”

For some reason, Keith’s heartbeat took up speed. “O-okay.”

“But only if you want to,” Lance said, opening his hands to Keith.

“I-I want to!” Keith said.

“Yay,” little Lance said, closing his eyes happily.

It took Keith a few seconds to realise, but then he discovered that Lance had done this to cheer him up. As soon as he figured it out, he spoke the words he had been practising to say lately: “Thank you, Lance.”

“Heh,” Lance chuckled and he nudged Keith’s shoulder. “Anytime.”

They were silent for a moment, gazing at a little squirrel that was nuzzling about at the bottom of the tree.

“That being said,” Lance continued, “my birthday is next month. Wanna come celebrate at my house?”

Keith’s mouth formed a silent ‘o’. He had never been in Lance’s house before, and just imagining being surrounded by so many people that he didn’t know well made him nervous.

“Of course Shiro and Adam can come too!” Lance ensured Keith, which made him feel slightly better.

“Okay then. I’ll come.”

“Yes!” Lance cheered. “I’m looking forward to it already!”

And so did Keith.

~

The month flew by fast. Before Keith noticed, Lance’s birthday was in three days.

“So, what are you going to give him, Keith?” Shiro asked, as he and Keith were seated on the carpet of Keith’s room, organising all the toys from the chest just to find out how much was in there that Keith hadn’t discovered yet.

“Give?” Keith repeated.

“Yes, as a present.”

Keith blinked. Oh _shit_. Birthdays always came with presents, didn’t they? They didn’t really _do_ birthdays in the orphanage, so he had completely forgotten.

“Do you have any idea what he likes?”

But Keith couldn’t respond due to a small, personal crisis. Was he supposed to buy something? But he didn’t have any money! Then should he give Lance one of his own toys? But he had never had this many toys before and he still hadn’t played with all of them! Then should he make something, like a drawing? But Keith didn’t have any talent!

He grabbed his little rocket toy and held it so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Shiro saw.

“Hey hey hey, it’s okay!” he said softly. “Take it easy, buddy, you have nothing to worry about. I will help you find something suitable, if you want me to.” He placed a hand over Keith’s so that he would at least stop clenching the rocket to tightly. “Why don’t you ask him what he’d like to have when you see him again?”

That sounded like a solid idea. The next day, Keith and Lance met each other between their houses. Keith was pressing the tips of his index fingers together in a shy motion.

“What would you like for your birthday?” he mumbled.

Lance gasped in excitement. “Are you gonna buy me a present?”

“M-maybe…” Keith replied, flustered.

“Awesome. I know exactly what I want.” When Lance didn’t continue, Keith looked up, and saw that his neighbour was grinning at him. Suddenly he reached out and grabbed one of Keith’s hands. “Follow me.”

And before Keith knew it, he was being tugged along by Lance, their hands firmly grasped together. Lance led him to his front door, through the hallway of his home, up the stairs, and into his room.

Keith’s mouth fell open.

The bedroom was completely filled with objects of space: dozens of figures of planes and rockets, tons of glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, a bedspread of an astronaut flying in space, a big model of a spaceship in the middle of his desk, a poster of a movie called “Guardians of the Galaxy”, and a big starry carpet on the wooden floor – the same one as Keith’s – which was surrounded by several books with images of earth and planets on the covers. The shelf, too, was filled with dark-coloured books with space-y titles.

“I kinda like space,” Lance said happily, when Keith’s eyes had roamed around the entire room.

“Yeah… I got that…” Keith replied without thinking.

“Here, look at this.” Lance was still holding Keith’s hand and pulled him to his window frame. “I’ve been collecting these,” he continued, pointing to an assortment of small spaceships, each the size of their hands. “But they’re suuuper cool and rare, so they’re pretty expensive.” He looked at Keith, who felt his gaze and looked back. “Shiro and Adam have been giving me some for my past two birthdays to help me complete the collection, but I still need a few.” He let go of Keith’s hand, walked to his desk, opened the upper drawer and pulled out a small magazine, which he spread out on the last two pages. “I have all of these,” he said, following the small boxes next to the ships displayed with his finger. The boxes of the ones he already possessed were coloured with red, though not very neatly between the lines. “But I still need these.”

There were only three spaceships left. Keith looked at each of them and tried to memorise their names: _Icarus V_ , _Saturn Surfer_ and _Planet Protector XII_.

“You’d be my absolute hero if you gave me one of them!” Lance said, looking at Keith with small flickers in his eyes. “But it’s fine if you can’t get them! Since they’re about 50 dollars per ship…”

“Where can I buy them?” Keith asked. He kinda liked the sound of “absolute hero”. If he could become one for Lance, he’d try his utmost best.

“Probably in the nearest toy shop,” Lance replied. “Or in space shops. But I’m not sure those exist. Maybe I should open one up when I’m older.”

Lance’s mind travelled back to the magazine, while he traced the contours of the ships with his finger. “They’re so cool,” he mumbled.

Keith stared at Lance’s distracted face, and could only think that Lance would probably love to see the contents of the toy chest in his bedroom.

~

“Aaah, of course! I should’ve known,” Shiro explained happily, clapping his hands once. “From the moment we knew he collected them, Adam and I have been looking for moments to surprise him with a new ship. On his birthdays we gave him two.”

“He – he only needs three more,” Keith said. “The names were, uhm… _Icarus V_ , _Saturn Surfer_ and _Planet Protector X I I_.”

Shiro chuckled. “It’s pronounced ‘Icarus the Fifth’ and ‘Planet Protector the Twelfth’,” he said, after Keith had pronounced _V_ , _X_ and _I_ as letters and not as numbers.

“Oh,” he said, blushing awkwardly.

“But you did well remembering the names,” Shiro said, and he ruffled Keith’s hair. “Let’s go to the toy store tomorrow and see if they have those three.”

“Will we get him _all three_?” Keith said, involuntarily replaying Lance’s words in his mind: _You’d be my absolute hero if you gave me one of them_. Lance would probably think of him as an _absolute and complete hero_ if Keith gave them all.

“Absolutely. Now that we’re with the three of us, we can give him one per person,” Shiro responded.

Oh. So they were not all Keith’s to give. He stared at his hands, pondering this realisation.

Shiro seemed to read his mind, as he leaned closer in his chair with a smug look and tried to make eye contact with him. “Or do you want to be the one to give them to him?”

Keith’s head jerked up, his cheeks turning red. Why did Shiro always know such things? Well, Keith would probably not be able to give Lance even one, since… “I don’t have money,” the boy mumbled.

Shiro huffed a laugh. “No worries kiddo, Adam and I will pay for all of them.”

“You can do that?” Keith asked with big eyes.

“Of course. We’ve been saving.”

“Specially for Lance’s birthday?”

Shiro smiled hearing those words. There was so much warmth in his eyes that Keith could feel his heart swell. “That, and because we knew _you_ ’d be coming.” He ruffled Keith’s hair again. Keith could feel his heart beating joyfully against his chest. Suddenly he was grasped with the urge to give Shiro a hug, but since he felt like that was way too big a step for him to make, he instead took the hand on his head and squeezed it strongly, before he turned and dashed up the stairs. It was almost a shame that he missed Shiro’s delighted smile, because it was extremely beautiful to see.

~

Soon the day of Lance’s birth arrived, July 28th. It was a wonderfully hot summer’s day, and Keith was dressed in a red tank top and knee-long cargo pants. The party took place in Lance’s garden, and Keith, Shiro and Adam went there with the three of them, Lance’s presents wrapped neatly, lying safely in both of Keith’s hands. Keith was ecstatic to discover that all three spaceships were still for sale, and that Shiro and Adam had no problem with Keith handing over all the presents to Lance by himself.

Keith was already pumped to see Lance’s reaction. Just imagining that great and heart-warming smile being directed fully at him, made his heart beat faster in anticipation.

The barbecue was already being prepared when they entered the garden, small whiffs of smoke circling into the sky and flying past the treehouse.

“Good afternoon, everyone,” Shiro attracted the attention to them.

“It’s my favourite neighbours!” Lance’s mother exclaimed, clapping her hands and approaching the three.

“Hey!” a big man said, looking insulted. Keith expected that he was their neighbour on the other side of the house.

Lance’s mom ignored him, while Lance’s dad patted the big man on the shoulder but simultaneously did not deny her words.

“How splendid to have you guys here. How are you these days?” she asked the two men.

“We’re doing great, thank you,” Adam replied with a smile.

“And how are you, Keith?” she asked friendly.

“I – I’m alright,” Keith responded. He almost forgot, but quickly added “thank you”, like Adam had done.

“That’s marvellous. I’m glad you’re all fine. Come on, join us!”

As the three sat down, Lance’s mom jogged into the house and returned with some drinks.

“So, where’s the birthday boy?” Shiro asked, looking around. He took the cup meant for Keith from Lance’s mom, since Keith was carefully holding the presents and looked like he wasn’t gonna let go of them until he’d had the chance to give them to Lance.

“Marco is taking him on a little drive around the neighbourhood on his motorcycle, but they should be back any minute now,” Lance’s mom answered.

And indeed, after about ten minutes, they heard the rumbling noise of a motorcycle getting louder, and then it dying out completely. Two seconds after, Lance came bouncing into the garden.

“That was great!” he exclaimed happily. “Absolutely awesome!”

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, honey,” Lance’s mom said, as she took Lance in her arms to stop him from bouncing. “Look who just got here?”

Lance’s eyes first went to Shiro and Adam, who had gotten up when Lance entered the garden, but even quicker than that, they flew to Keith.

“Keith!” he said, freeing himself from his mother’s grip and almost dashing to his neighbour. He slipped to a standstill and greeted Shiro and Adam as well. “Hello!”

“Happy birthday, Lance,” Shiro said, extending his hand and shaking Lance’s. Adam did the same, congratulating Lance as well. “So, you’re a big man now, huh?”

“It’s even cooler being eight years old than seven,” Lance said, placing his hands on his hips and looking proud.

“I can imagine. Keith still has to wait a few months.”

“Yeah? When’s your birthday, Keith?” Lance asked him.

“October 23rd,” Keith muttered.

“Really? So I’m older than you!” Apparently that made him happy. Then he suddenly grinned. “Well, it doesn’t make me cooler than you, though.”

Keith swallowed thickly. Did Lance just call him cool?

“Do you want your presents now, Lance?” Adam asked.

“Yes please!” Lance said cheerfully.

Shiro nudged Keith’s shoulder softly. “Now’s your chance, Keith!”

Keith’s heart was beating faster again, from excitement. He shuffled closer to Lance, who was gazing at him with actual sparkles in his eyes. “I’ve been looking forward most to your present, Keith,” he said.

“And why’s that?” Adam asked, squatting and supportively putting a hand on Keith’s back, noticing that he was shy.

“Well, not because I asked him something cool,” Lance said, “but because it’s Keith’s!”

Keith had absolutely no idea why that would make Lance excited, but he was almost trembling with the urge to give his presents. So he shuffled the tiniest bit closer, and then extended the hands with his presents.

“H-happy birthday.”

“Thank you, Keith!” Lance said, and he picked the one on top of the pile.

“I hope you like them,” Keith said genuinely.

“I’m sure I will.”

Lance unpacked the present greedily, and a few second later held a small spaceship on the palm of his hand.

“ _Planet Protector XII_!” he exclaimed, correctly pronouncing the letters as numbers. “Awesome! Can you hold this, mom?”

His mother took the ship from him before he picked up the second one and ripped the wrapping paper off. It was the _Icarus V_ , and Lance actually squealed with excitement.

“Don’t tell me,” he said as he reached for the third, “that you found all of them???”

Keith didn’t say anything as Lance unwrapped the third present and revealed the tiny _Saturn Surfer_. He jumped up and down with the spaceship in his hands. “You got me all of them!” he said. “You’re the best, Keith!” Before Keith knew it, Lance had jumped forward and wrapped his arms around Keith’s body. Keith was frozen, too wary to return the hug, but Lance didn’t seem to mind. He squeezed Keith tightly before he let go of him. “You’re my hero!”

Keith had trouble keeping his face in check upon hearing those words. His facial muscles acted without his consent, his smile breaking through and turning his cheeks all rosy. He was so happy, he hardly knew what to say.

“Come on,” Lance said, pressing the _Surfer_ in Keith’s hands and taking the _Protector_ and the _Icarus_ from his mother and nodding to the house. “Let’s put them with the rest!”

Lance ran inside, Keith following quickly. They dashed through the living room, up the stairs and into Lance’s room. Having arrived there, Lance carefully placed his two ships next to the others, on the last few empty spaces on his window-frame. He turned to Keith. “Do you want to place the last one?”

“B-but it’s yours,” Keith said.

“I wouldn’t have gotten them without you,” Lance said and gestured to the ships.

“I – I wouldn’t have gotten them without Shiro and Adam,” Keith stammered.

“I know,” Lance replied with a smile. “I’ll thank them later. But since you’re my hero now, you should put it on here.”

At the word “hero”, Keith’s heart swelled again. He stepped to the window-frame, pointed questioningly at the empty space, and put the _Surfer_ down carefully when Lance nodded.

“Just look at them!” Lance said, beaming at his now complete collection. “Aren’t they beautiful?! Let’s colour the boxes!” The magazine was still lying open on the desk, and Lance took his red pencil and coloured them. Then he held up the magazine and gazed at it with satisfaction. “Ahhh. Isn’t this the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen?”

When Keith’s first thought was something along the lines of, _no, your smile when you saw me for the first time is_ , he felt like time stopped for a solid three seconds, in which he just looked at Lance, not understanding what the heck that thought had meant.

~

When they returned to the garden, Shiro and Adam were talking with Lance’s sister, Veronica.

“So, I’m aiming for the Astrology Department at State University. Not sure if I’ll get in though.”

“Well, you’re extremely smart for starters, so if you keep up with your studies it shouldn’t be a problem,” Adam said encouragingly.

“It’d be awesome to receive classes from my neighbours,” Veronica grinned.

Wait. It wasn’t until now that Keith had ever thought about what Shiro and Adam actually did in their lives. Why had he never asked?

“It’s so cool that your dads are Astronomy professors,” Lance said, burying his hands in the pockets of his shorts. “They know sooo much about space, I’m really jealous. Should we join them?”

Keith nodded, and the two boys sat down on the two empty chairs in the circle where the three adults were talking.

Were they seriously Astronomy professors? Keith wasn’t hundred percent sure he knew what a professor was, but it was someone really smart, wasn’t it? It would explain all the space toys, the carpet on Keith’s floor and their favourite movie, to be honest.

“Definitely. Though we’d have to try not to pick favourites with you as our student,” Shiro said with a wink.

“It’d be fine with me,” Veronica smirked. Then she looked at her younger brother. “Wouldn’t surprise me if Little Lance is gonna aim to become an astronomer as well, seeing that he loves space so much.”

“Yeahhh, but I’d rather do something active, instead of just _learning_ about space. I wanna _travel_ to space!” Lance said. Man, that Lance actually knew this much about himself. Keith already had a hard time figuring out what subject he hated most at school.

“There are many great opportunities to get there, Lance,” Shiro said. “The Galaxy Garrison in Arizona has space programs which train driven people like you to become pilots.”

“Though you won’t get in without good grades,” Adam said. “So keep studying.”

“Are you really going to space?” Keith asked incredulously.

“I still gotta do a lot of research,” Lance said with a shrug, “about all the things that I’ve to do before I can get there. But yeah, it’s my main goal in life!”

Keith stared at him. It must feel awesome to know exactly what you want to do when you grow up. Keith had absolutely no clue.

“When the time comes, you should come with me,” Lance said.

Keith blinked, not entirely sure what to say to that.

~

“So, how about your birthday party, Keith?” Adam asked, one bright September afternoon, at the dinner table, with his nose in the newspaper.

Keith blinked. “What about it?”

“Do you want to celebrate it? Like Lance?”

Keith was silent for a bit. “I – I don’t know.”

“You don’t have to, of course.

Keith looked shyly at his colouring book. “I… I just haven’t celebrated my birthday since my dad died.”

Adam lowered the newspaper and gazed at Keith, who was now sadly colouring a flower in his book.

“I see,” Adam replied. “Then I propose we celebrate it, but just not too many people. How about you, me, Shiro, and Lance?”

Keith looked up carefully. Upon seeing Adam’s kind smile, he contemplated those words. When he was just with his dad, it was always the two of them on his birthday as well. He could imagine that having a big party like Lance, with everyone focusing on him all day, would make him pretty anxious. And thus he nodded. “Okay.”

“Great,” Adam smiled. “You don’t have to think about anything, Shiro and I will make sure your birthday is going to be the best one you’ve had since your dad.”

Keith nodded, a small blush on his cheeks, and refocused on the flower.

~

Shiro was sitting alone in the living room, on one of the soft green couches.

“Mr Shiro! Mr Shiro, I need your help.”

Shiro looked up from his phone, and saw Lance’s red-cheeked face outside the open window across from him.

“It’s the little space explorer!” Shiro said. “What can I do for you, my boy?”

Lance pressed his lips together, looked left, looked right, and then lowered his head so that only his eyes still peeked over the frame. “Is Keith at home?”

“Absolutely. He’s in his room, should I get him for you?”

“No!” Lance jerked up. “No, it’s actually you I need to talk to, Mr Shiro. Or Mr Adam, doesn’t really matter.”

“Ah, I see,” Shiro said, liking Lance’s cute behaviour. “Then what is it?”

“Uhm…” Lance glanced left and right again. Then he whispered, “Can you come a little closer, please?”

Shiro put his phone in his pocket, walked over to Lance and crossed his arms on the window-frame. “Now, let’s hear it.”

Lance got on tiptoes and whispered in Shiro’s ear, “Do you know what I should give Keith for his birthday?”

“Aaah, present problems, isn’t it?” Shiro said, leaning back with an understanding expression.

Lance nodded, a little flustered. He pressed the fingertips of his index fingers against each other repeatedly. “Even though we’ve talked a lot, I still don’t really know what he likes…”

Shiro nodded as well. “Adam and I have been experiencing the same problem. He isn’t very open about what he likes and dislikes, isn’t he?”

“Right?” Lance’s eyes were a little desperate. “But I really want to give him something amazing! I want him to have the bestest birthday ever!”

“Then we have the same goal,” Shiro smiled. “But don’t worry. As long as it is something that comes from there–” Shiro poked against Lance’s chest, where his heart was, “–I’m convinced Keith will love it.”

Lance pouted. “That’s the kind of adult advice that’s really hard to act upon, Mr Shiro.”

Shiro laughed. “I’m sorry. If Keith tells me what he wants, you’ll be the first to know. But seriously.” He looked at Lance with confidence. “I’m pretty sure Keith will love whatever you come up with. It’s you, after all.”

“What does that mean?” Lance said, blushing a little again.

“It means you don’t have to think too deeply. Just be you, that’s all,” Shiro explained friendly.

“I… I see…” Lance started thinking deeply, as Shiro just told him not to do.

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice came from the stairs. Lance jolted so hard he almost fell backwards. Shiro grabbed him by his shirt and held him up.

“What is it, Keith?”

“Can you come upstairs? I think… I think I broke the toy chest…”

Shiro looked at Lance, who was pressing his hands against his mouth as to not make a sound. Shiro winked and let go of his shirt. “Go. Good luck.”

Lance nodded, and dashed back to his own house, while Shiro headed for the stairs.

~

October 23rd came swiftly. In the meantime, the leaves on the trees had turned red, orange and yellow, while the temperature dropped steadily. Keith’s birthday was on a bright autumn’s day, not extremely cold, but not that warm either.

Keith hopped down the stairs with an annoying feeling of expectancy. His birthdays with his father had always been pretty fun. While those in the orphanage were always dull, even though he’d always secretly hoped it would be celebrated even a little. Of course it never was.

That was why he didn’t want to expect much today either, but the blissful months he had spent here in San Diego had been wonderful enough to arouse the hope that maybe his birthday wouldn’t be so bad this time.

He pushed the swinging door to the kitchen open, and went inside.

“Happy birthday, Keith!”

_Pweeeeep!_

Keith blinked at the little party hooter Adam had in his mouth, the object that had made the strange sound just now.

Shiro and Adam were dressed in their best domestic clothes, both a party hat on their heads and each a wrapped present in their hands. Behind them, on the kitchen table, was the same cake the two men had bought for Keith’s welcome-home party a few months ago.

Keith’s eyes grew, seeing a circle of even more presents around the cake. His heart swelled with joy and gratitude, and he lowered his head. “Thank you.”

“Come on, come on, we’re going to give you your presents!”

The two men eagerly guided Keith to his chair, putting a party hat on his head in the meantime, and sat down on either side of him. First they were gonna give him the two presents they had held in their hands when Keith entered the kitchen. With every present they had prepared a short and funny speech, which made Keith laugh harder and harder with each. The two presents the men had held in their hands contained a little extension for his toy rocket, and an amazing, cool-looking pair of leather fingerless gloves, which were a little too big, but “that’s so you’ll grow into them,” according to Adam. The other presents contained, among other things, the first Star Wars DVD, a magazine on comic books, and a quality draw- and sketch set, since they had seen Keith draw more often these days.

Keith was so happy, he hardly knew what to say.

“There’s more to come,” Shiro said. “Lance is coming over this afternoon to eat cake and have dinner, and it seems he has a present for you too!”

A present from Lance! Keith’s heart started beating faster. Suddenly he was so excited, he almost forgot there was a cake to eat.

When Lance came over that afternoon, he was empty-handed.

“Uhm, before you think I don’t have anything, my – my present comes in the evening!” he said quickly. “W-well, half of it is. The other half is, uhm, then as well.”

Lance had about three pieces of cake, after which Keith brought him to his room, where Lance plundered the toy chest and they played with almost everything in it. Lance wanted to check out with every single thing, so they were pretty busy until Adam called them down for dinner.

It was Keith’s favourite, fries with chicken, and the boys ate until they couldn’t say another word.

As they drowsily sank into their chairs, Shiro reminded them: “Don’t fall asleep yet. Wasn’t there something you needed to give Keith, Lance?”

Lance jerked up immediately. “Yes!” He shot a glance to the window. The sun was already setting. “Okay!” He turned to Keith. “Be in front of my house in…” He looked at Shiro and Adam.

“I think half an hour should be fine,” Shiro said. Keith had no idea what was happening.

“In half an hour!” Lance finished his sentence to Keith, and he stormed out of the house.

Keith looked at Shiro and Adam, blinking.

“I have no idea what he has in mind for you,” Shiro said innocently.

“Sure you don’t,” Keith said with a pout.

Shiro smiled at him, but didn’t say anything.

When Keith went to Lance’s house 30 minutes later, the sun had pretty much set. The lights in the street prevented him from seeing the stars, which was a shame, especially since it had been so bright all day.

Lance was standing in front of his door, waiting. When he saw Keith, his eyes lit up and he greeted him as if he hadn’t literally said goodbye to him half an hour ago. Lance let Keith inside, and they climbed the stairs. They didn’t stop at Lance’s room, however, as Keith had thought. Instead, Lance climbed another flight of stairs, towards the attic. It was slightly dusty there, and there were many objects that looked they hadn’t been used for a while. Still, it didn’t look as scary as it could’ve been. Just like the rest of Lance’s house, this place felt very welcoming.

But they didn’t stop here, either. Guided by a flashlight, Lance led them through the attic, to one of the windows in the slanting wall of the pointed roof. Lance climbed onto a chair closeby and pushed the window open with great effort. Before Keith could stop him, Lance climbed outside.

“L-Lance! Where are you going?” Keith whispered, scared that his friend would fall. He felt a wash of relief when Lance’s head popped through the frame, back inside.

“Come on! I gotta show you something.” He held out his hands, which Keith hesitantly took hold of as he stepped on the chair. Lance pulled him through the window.

They landed on a flat part of the roof, of about three square metres. From here, the street lights around their houses were too far down to pollute the sky.

“Here, sit down,” Lance said, pushing Keith down onto the roof. He quickly grabbed something, held it behind his back and sat down as well. Keith was looking at him expectantly.

Lance raised his hand, and gestured to the sky. “Happy birthday, Keith.”

For the second time that evening, Keith looked up – and gasped.

Millions of stars were twinkling in the black depth of the sky. He could even see the Milky Way, stretching across the darkness like a silver river. It was so beautiful, he didn’t know what to say.

He had seen stars, of course, but they had always been dimmed by the lamps from the city. He had never seen stars like _this_ , so free to shine by themselves without their power being numbed by humanly fabricated lights.

He couldn’t stop staring. Now more than ever, he could imagine that Lance wanted to be up there, travelling from star to star.

“My parents don’t like it when I come up here,” Lance said softly. “They think it’s dangerous.”

Lance’s words pulled Keith back to Earth and he looked at him. He didn’t blame Lance’s parents for thinking so. They were pretty high up.

“But I just _had_ to show you,” Lance continued, staring up himself. “It’s one of my favourite spots.”

Keith got struck for a moment, noticing how the small specks of light got reflected by the blue of Lance’s eyes as he looked upwards. Suddenly it was as if his eyes were two small night skies, and Keith found it almost just as stunning as the real thing.

When Lance glanced back at Keith, and noticed that he was staring at him, they both blushed. Keith looked away with a soft “sorry…” while Lance cleared his throat and fought hard to stop the heat from climbing to his cheeks. “It’s okay,” he said. To focus on something else, he pulled out what he had been hiding behind his back. A present.

“For you…” Lance said, not looking at Keith as he handed it to him.

“Thank you,” Keith said shyly, and he started unwrapping it. The paper contained the first five issues of the comic he had been reading in Lance’s treehouse during one of their first meetings. He had thought about the comic often after reading it, but had been too shy to ask Lance about it, especially since they had unconsciously replaced the treehouse with the tree in the back of Keith’s garden.

“Do you like it?” Lance asked unsure. “You were so engulfed in it back then and I wasn’t sure what to give you and… well…” He looked away, blushing again.

Man, Keith was really starting to like this boy.

“Thank you, Lance,” he said. When Lance looked up, he smiled. “I’m really happy.”

“Really?!” Lance said, his eyes widening and some drops of starlight falling into them again. “Man, that’s a relief!” Then he started wringing his hands. “C-can I give you a birthday hug?”

Now it was Keith’s turn to widen his eyes. He had only received a hug from Lance once, on the boy’s birthday, and one time a kiss on his cheek. He couldn’t say he hated the idea of getting both of those one more time. So he nodded.

“Yay!” Little Lance threw himself forward and wrapped his arms around Keith’s neck. “Happy birthday! For the second time!”

Keith returned the hug softly, and smiled. “Thank you.”

And he looked back up at the stars, marvelling in the whirlwind of blissful emotions raging inside of him.

~

Shortly after Keith’s birthday, it was time for Halloween. So far, Keith hadn’t really had a thing for Halloween. He hadn’t celebrated it with his dad, and in the orphanage he never participated. The kids had been allowed to go down to the village and collect candy at night, but since Keith generally didn’t really enjoy their company, he never went with them.

But now it was different. Lance was so excited for it that Keith could hardly remain indifferent himself. Shiro and Adam, too, seemed ready to celebrate. They asked Keith as what or who he wanted to dress up for Halloween, and after they encouraged him to say whatever he wanted, he softly admitted he wanted to go as Jim Hawkins. Shiro and Adam seemed extremely happy about that, and together with Lance’s mom, who was a queen at making clothes, they created a wonderful Jim costume for Keith. When Keith went out to meet Lance on the 31st of October, Lance hopped out of the house in a pirate’s costume.

Keith smiled a little and said, “I really thought you would go as astronaut.”

“That was my plan at first,” Lance said. His hand grasped the hilt of his toy sword. “But then I was thinking, what if I go as _space pirate_?!” He pulled his sword from his belt and pointed it at Keith. “Aren’t those super cool too?! Arrr matey!”

Keith started to laugh. He took the point of the sword and lowered it. “You’re super scary. I’m Jim Hawkins, from Treasure Planet.”

“I can see it!” Lance said, standing up straight and lowering the sword to his side. “There are also space pirates in Treasure Planet, right? That means we’re matching!”

And Keith, extremely happy about that fact, took Lance by the hand as they started to walk around the neighbourhood.

They collected so much candy that they would be living off of it for the entire year until the next Halloween.

A month after, it was time for Thanksgiving. Keith, Shiro and Adam were invited by Lance’s parents to join them and their large family for Thanksgiving dinner, an invitation which they had gratefully accepted. When Keith entered the room, however, and saw even more people than on Lance’s birthday, he could already feel his anxiety attack coming. He tried to calm himself by repeating Shiro’s words that he and his dads would go back home as soon as he wanted to, but the first moment he truly calmed down was when Lance found him, a warm smile on his face, with the promise that Keith would sit next to him for the entire night. In the end, he actually managed to enjoy the evening and gulp down piece after piece of turkey with Lance.

A month later, it was time for Christmas. And it was the most wonderful Christmas Keith had ever had.

It was hard to point out what exactly had made it so. Perhaps it was the ginormous pile of presents underneath the beautifully decorated Christmas tree that was lying there when he came downstairs on Christmas morning. Or perhaps the unwrapping of them with Adam and Shiro by his side. Or maybe it was the absolutely crazy Christmas sweaters the two adult men were wearing, with actual flickering lights and bright colours. Perhaps it was the new invitation of Lance’s family to come over for dinner. Or maybe, just maybe, it was Lance wearing a headband with reindeer ears and antlers on them, combined with the little present he was holding out to Keith when they were sitting near the fireplace after dinner.

“I made these myself,” said Lance happily. Keith was enthralled by the golden light of the fire dancing in his eyes. “I’ve been practising very hard, but they still look a little wonky.”

He handed Keith the present, who unwrapped it carefully. It consisted of a pair of wool socks with on the right foot “Merry” and “Ke”, and on the other “Christmas” and “ith”. Keith’s face broke open in a huge smile when he saw it. He looked at Lance with a teasing expression and said, “‘Merry Ke’ and ‘Christmas ith’?”

Lance groaned. “I just couldn’t find the right solution! It would either be ‘Merry Christmas’ on the one sock and ‘Keith’ on the other, or ‘Merry’ in the one and ‘Christmas Keith’ on the other! Both just didn’t feel good.”

“You could’ve just done ‘Merry Christmas’,” Keith giggled.

“That was impossible. The world has to know they’re meant for you!”

Keith hummed, as the warm feeling that Lance was so regularly responsible for spread itself through his chest again. He pulled off the blue socks he was wearing now and replaced them with the thick, sort of rugged wool socks Lance had made for him. They were slightly ticklish, but also very, very warm.

“Thank you so much,” Keith said, wiggling his toes and pressing the insides of his feet together, so that the socks read “Merry Christmas Keith” upside down.

“My mom has been teaching me,” Lance said. “One day I wanna be able to knit a shark onesie!”

“That’s ambitious,” Keith said. Then his smile faltered. “But I didn’t bring anything for you…”

“That’s alright, you don’t have to,” Lance said, clearly in a good mood. “How about you give me a cheek kiss at midnight at New Year’s? I already gave you one once, but I’ve been kind of wanting one back.” He blushed a little, but didn’t seem to feel any shame admitting that.

“O-oh,” Keith said. He tried to picture it, and kind of liked the idea. “Yeah, okay.”

“Yay!”

~

“You asked him to kiss you on the cheek?” Veronica asked, as she and Lance were doing the laundry together.

“Yes. I think it’s a very good idea,” Lance said as he gave her the wet socks from the washing machine and his sister put them in the drying machine.

“Do you know that most people kiss with the person they love most during midnight at New Year’s?” she asked him.

Lance nodded. “So?”

Veronica huffed and smiled. “No, it’s good that you know. Just wanted to check.”

“I do really like Keith,” Lance said. “So it’s fine, right?”

“Absolutely, Little Lance,” Veronica said, taking the few wet shirts from him. “It’s going to be a wonderful New Year’s.”

“I think so too,” Lance said, beaming. “My first New Year’s with Keith!”

“And there will probably be many, many more to come,” his sister said with a lovely smile.

She wasn’t wrong.

~

New Year’s arrived in the blink of an eye. Before Keith knew it, they were in Lance’s living room, with many many people (like always, lately), watching the TV as the last seconds of the year ticked by. Keith and Lance were standing together when everyone started counting out loud.

_Ten_.

Lance looked at Keith. “You remember it, right?”

_Nine_.

“Y-yeah,” Keith answered.

_Eight_.

“How could I forget?”

_Seven_.

“No idea,” Lance beamed.

_Six_.

“I’ve been looking forward to it since Christmas.”

_Five_.

It was the same for Keith, though he could feel his heart beating in his ears from the nerves.

_Four_.

“Better start getting ready now!” Lance said.

_Three_.

Keith turned to Lance, and gently took him by the left arm.

_Two_.

He placed his free left hand on Lance’s right cheek.

_One_.

He leaned forward.

Fireworks exploded inside both of them while the world around them erupted in a chaos of voices and screams of “happy new year!!!” Keith kept his lips pressed to Lance’s cheek for at least ten seconds, until their families directed their arrows at them and came to wish the young ones a happy new year as well. While Lance hugged his mom and Keith Shiro and Adam, Lance looked over his mother’s shoulder at Keith. “That was awesome,” he whispered. Keith grinned back over his dads’ shoulders. “You’re welcome.”

~

One and a half month into the next year, Valentine’s Day happened. And if there was one thing Keith had never celebrated, it was Valentine’s Day. But if there was one thing that Lance and his entire family _always_ celebrated, it was Valentine’s Day. Also, if there was one day on which Shiro and Adam unrestrainedly revealed what kind of romantic saps they were, it was Valentine’s Day.

So naturally, Keith wouldn’t be able to avoid the Feast of Saint Valentine this time.

It was a school day, and Keith was subjected to the day’s power from the first hour onwards.

They were expected to craft something for the person they romantically loved. Keith felt his eyebrows furrow. He was literally eight years old. How could he know he loved someone romantically? What did that even feel like?

“I know what it feels like,” Hunk said shyly when Keith expressed this concern in class.

“You do?” Lance asked, perplexed. “How does it feel? You have to tell us!”

“Uhm, well…” Hunk started pressing the tips of his index fingers against each other. “Everything becomes exciting when they’re in the room, and… all you want is to look them in the eyes and when they say your name it’s as if the world is the most beautiful place ever.”

“Aww,” Pidge coo’d teasingly.

“Wow, that’s kinda sappy,” Lance said with his eyebrows raised. “But doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Hunk has a little crush,” Pidge said, poking him with her elbow.

When Hunk didn’t reply but just rubbed his upper arm with a flustered expression, his three friends became curious.

“Who?” Keith asked.

“Wait wait wait, I think I can guess,” Lance said and he snapped his fingers. “Is it that Shay girl from the other class?”

Hunk’s cheeks turned bright red.

“It is!” Lance cheered. “I knew it!”

“For real?” Pidge blinked. “Well, she’s super nice, so I guess I can see it.”

Keith didn’t know who Shay was, but he decided not to ask. “Are you going to make something for her?”

“I’m planning to,” Hunk said with a smile as he gathered his crafting utensils. “But I don’t know what yet.”

“Man, I wish I knew who I wanna make something for,” Lance said with a pout, leaning his arms on the back of his chair and letting his chin rest on them. “I seriously have no idea.”

“You’ve never had a crush before, Lance?” Hunk asked.

“I don’t think so?” For some reason Lance looked at Keith for a moment, thinking deeply for a bit. Keith looked back with his eyebrows raised. When Lance looked away again he had a little frown on his face.

“I think I’ll just make something for my brother Matt,” Pidge said, picking up some coloured leaves of paper that were lying on her table. “Not in a romantic way of course, that’d be weird.”

“I’m sure Matt will really appreciate it, Pidge,” Hunk said. “You must miss him a lot since he’s gone to the Galaxy Garrison.”

“I do,” Pidge confirmed. “But we communicate often. He’s really enjoying himself so I’m just happy for him.”

“You’re a great younger sister. If I wasn’t going to make something for Shay, I’d make something for my younger siblings too,” Hunk said.

“Well, you won’t catch me making something for my older siblings,” Lance said, still pouting. “I’m pretty sure they all have someone they like anyway.” He looked at Keith again. “Who are you gonna make something for?”

“I-I don’t know yet,” Keith stammered. “I don’t have siblings. I’m sure Adam and Shiro would be happy if I made something but, I know they’re also giving something to each other. They said so this morning. And they’re going out for dinner.”

“Oh, that’s right, you’re coming over tonight right?” Lance said, straightening up. “Since my parents and Luis are all out too, Veronica is gonna cook a Valentine’s dinner for us. Mom told me you were gonna come.”

Keith nodded. “Yep.”

“Well, if you don’t know who to make something for, why don’t you just make something for each other?” Hunk suggested. “You can give it tonight when you’re seeing each other again.”

Keith and Lance were both silent upon hearing that suggestion.

“Yeah, why not?” Pidge said with a shrug.

“But – but we’re sitting next to each other, it won’t be a surprise then,” Lance said.

“I can switch places with Keith for today?” Hunk proposed. “And then you just gotta resist the temptation to look.”

“But I look so often at Keith,” Lance pouted. “I wanna talk to him too!”

“I’m sure you can bear it for one school day,” Hunk said, getting up. “What do you think, Keith?”

“Y-yeah, sure,” Keith said. He had been thinking the first person he’d want to make something for was Lance anyway. Lance had made something for Keith before, after all.

“Wait, so you’re okay with this?” Lance asked when Keith got up as well.

Keith shrugged. “Yeah. I wanna make something in return for the socks.”

“Socks?” Pidge asked.

“He made me socks for Christmas,” Keith explained as he and Hunk walked past each other to the other’s seat.

“Man, _that_ is sappy,” Hunk said.

“N-not all,” Lance said, flushing a little as he watched Hunk sitting down next to him. “I just really wanted to give him something.”

“It’s cute. Admit it, Lance,” said Pidge as Keith sat down next to her.

“Nope, no chance,” Lance said, looking away with his nose in the air.

Pidge grinned at Keith. “You think he’s cute, right?”

“Well, at least a little,” Keith said.

“Keith, how can you betray me like this?” Lance said, but he didn’t sound too serious. So after the two exchanged a smile, Lance turned around and focused on the crafting materials on his desk, while Keith took his own.

That night, after Shiro and Adam had brought Keith to the McClains’ romantically decorated home, and he had enjoyed a delicious dinner by Lance’s sister Veronica, he and Lance were sitting in front of the fireplace again. The living room was full with self-crafted garlands of hearts and brightly burning candles, which made the atmosphere weirdly romantic as they were sitting there. It didn’t get much less romantic when they took their own crafts and exchanged them.

Keith had made a small red plane for Lance, with a little note that said, “Happy Valentine’s Day Lance. I’m happy you are my friend”. Lance had crafted a blue fish (“since I know you love that aquarium a lot”) with also a note that said, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Keith! I’m glad I met you!”

On that day, they had once again made each other extremely happy.

~

Like that, a few years passed, and not a day went by that they didn’t see each other. They soon appointed each other as best friend, and for years nothing was able to come between them. They spent every birthday, every Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day together (with many other people often, too). On the second Christmas since they met, Keith purposefully wore his socks on the wrong feet, which Lance blushed over really hard (“That’s not right, Keith!”), but as Keith kept it up every year, he started to enjoy it too (“Christmas Merry ithKe” looked extremely funny, after all). They grew closer and closer, learning together, sharing secrets, making plans. They snuck out of the house to watch the stars on a weekly basis and were constantly searching for new secret bases and places to hang out.

They were practically inseparable, smooth-sailing through five grades together.

At the age of twelve, Lance brought up the future again.

“So, I’ve been thinking,” he said. He was sitting on his bed, his homework open but undone on his pillow in front of him, while Keith was lying on his stomach on the rug with his own homework.

“You have? Was it fruitful?”

Lance shot him a look. “I mean it, listen.” He slid from his bed and landed in front of Keith. “I was thinking of applying for the Galaxy Garrison in Arizona. They allow people to join from the age of thirteen!”

Finally Keith looked up, and immediately gazed in Lance’s blue eyes. Taken aback a little, he questioned, “Galaxy Garrison? All the way in Arizona?”

“Yeah! If you get accepted, you’ll get a room there, and you’ll learn everything there is to know about becoming a space explorer. Doesn’t it sound awesome?”

“Hmm,” Keith looked back at his homework. He’d be lying if he said that he hadn’t thought about what to do with his life.

“You like space, don’t you?” Lance continued, leaning forward so that he was even closer to Keith.

That was true. Keith did like space. He thought of his favourite rocket toy, of Treasure Planet, of gazing at the stars with Lance, and of listening to the conversations Shiro and Adam held together and wishing he understood more of what they said.

“Yeah, I do. But what has your plan to do with me?”

“Well, I was thinking–” stars appeared in Lance’s eyes, “–why don’t we apply together?”

Keith blinked. “You mean that I’m going to the Galaxy Garrison too?”

“Yeah!” Lance jerked up. “Wouldn’t that be awesome? Maybe we’ll end up in the same room!”

“...That wouldn’t be so bad.”

“ _Right_?” Lance was ecstatic to learn that Keith had even the tiniest bit of interest in his plan. “What if we become space pilots?!”

Keith contemplated this option for a minute, growing more and more interested in the idea as the seconds passed. The moment he imagined him and Lance together in the same cockpit, piloting a spaceship together, he was basically sold.

“I’ll – I’ll talk about it with my dads,” he said. He didn’t want to give in to the enthusiastic feeling growing in his stomach just yet, in case that it wouldn’t work out, but the feeling was very powerful and the urge to beam over this as brightly as Lance was strong.

“Good idea,” Lance said and he pulled himself onto the bed. “I’m gonna do some research about what skills we need and what we gotta send in to apply!” And, ignoring his homework, he ran to his desk and turned on his laptop.

~

It appeared it wasn’t as hard as it seemed. They had to send in their scorecard, together with a motivational letter as to why they wanted to join the Galaxy Garrison. There was one other aspect, though, that would probably make it even easier for Lance and Keith to get in, which Keith discovered when he decided to discuss the plan with Shiro and Adam.

They were at the dinner table, which was often the moment they shared plans, ideas and experiences with each other, eating a pasta-potato salad.

“So, Lance had an idea,” Keith began.

“A good one?” the men replied in unison.

“Sort of? He wants me to apply for the Galaxy Garrison with him.”

The two men froze, Shiro leaving his tablespoon hanging somewhere between the pan and his plate, and Adam stopping right before putting his fork into his mouth.

Keith had never seen them react like this before, so he stared from one dad to the other. “You know, the one in Arizona?” he clarified, in case they didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Oh, we know that one,” Adam said. Those words seemed to wake Shiro up from whatever shock mode he was in, as he finished dishing up and put the spoon back into the pan. Adam managed to take the bite.

“Right, okay,” Keith said, confused.

“So, do you want to go as well?” Shiro asked.

“Well, I’ve been thinking about it. I would like to, but…” He turned a little red. “I’m not sure if I can handle being away from you two for six years.” They had given him so much life and love that leaving them seemed like a really, _really_ bad idea.

“Is that so?” Shiro said, a sweet tone in his voice.

“But does this mean that you want to try it out?” Adam asked. “I sure think it’d suit you very much.”

“Really?” Keith asked. He did really want to go, especially since he would get to go with Lance, but…

“Keith, I think that we have some really good news for you,” Shiro said.

Keith looked up. “What is it?”

“Takashi and I have been asked to come teach at the Galaxy Garrison,” Adam told him.

A few seconds of silence fell.

“Wait, _seriously_?” Keith exclaimed and he jumped up. “When?!”

“They’ve been asking us for about a year now,” Shiro elaborated. “But we never felt like it was the right time to go.”

“We were once cadets at the Galaxy Garrison too,” Adam said. “Both best of our class. They wanted us to stay at the Garrison, but we wanted a life together. And now we’ve had it for an amazing couple of years. We’ve been professors for so long now that it doesn’t seem a bad idea to have a change of pace, so we’ve been discussing about how to respond to the question.”

“So that means… we’d go to the Galaxy Garrison with the three of us?” Keith asked incredulously.

“Only if you’re a hundred percent sure you want to go,” Shiro said. “Also, we probably won’t be able to sleep in the same area, but we’ll definitely be around.”

Then that’d mean that Keith wouldn’t have to say goodbye at all… That was almost too good to be true.

Suddenly he smiled so brightly that his cheeks turned red. He quickly gobbled down his food, jumped up and ran to the front door. “I’ll be at Lance’s!”

“Sure thing! Come back safe!”

As they heard the door slam shut, the men looked at each other.

“I think he likes it,” Adam said with a grin.

Keith sprinted over the pavement towards Lance’s house and barged in, as was normal and accepted these days. After all, he was basically part of the family.

“Lance!” he dashed up the stairs and into Lance’s room, where his friend was sitting behind his computer with a document open. He looked up, unfazed, when Keith suddenly appeared in his bedroom, as if that had happened about seven hundred times before. Which was probably the case. “Lance, my dads are gonna be teachers at the Galaxy Garrison!”

Lance’s eyes widened. “For real?! Holy shit! That’s so awesome! Maybe they can help us get in?!”

“Maybe!” Keith exclaimed enthusiastically. “This means we might actually be able to go!”

Lance grinned. “I’ve already started on my motivation.” He turned the screen towards Keith, so that he could look at the document. “How about we begin yours now too?”

And so they did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading if you reached this far!! I'd love to hear all your thoughts. Also feel free to check out/shoot me a message on my tumblr (@yep-klance), where I blog mostly about these two boys. Hope you enjoyed!!


	2. Always On My Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Slight warning for underage drinking, without any negative consequences.)
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!! <3

Shiro and Adam had seriously been considering including a condition in their reply, kind of a blackmail-y one, that if they were to come back as teachers, Keith and Lance should be admitted to the Garrison. But that wasn’t necessary. Keith and Lance’s letters, together with their scorecards, were already enough to get them in by themselves.

It all went so smoothly, that Keith had been smiling non-stop since they had received their confirmation.

And maybe it was a rare coincidence, but both Pidge and Hunk had applied for the Garrison as well. Pidge’s motivation was that her brother had done the same and she had been eager to follow in his footsteps, plus that her dad had been working for the Garrison for a very long time. Since she was the smartest of the entire class, it wasn’t a surprise for her when she got in. Hunk’s motivation was similar to Lance and Keith’s, that he just really liked space and mainly wanted to learn how to build ships. The combination of his motivation and scorecard was sufficient as well, and he was admitted too.

And so they all started preparing to leave. Pidge and Hunk had had no other option but to leave their families behind, but they were pretty okay with it. Pidge would probably see her brother and father regularly at the Garrison anyway. Hunk said he was definitely going to miss his family a lot, but he felt that this was the right thing to do and he was determined to persevere. Lance had had a bit of a hard time saying goodbye to his family, but since he wanted this more than anything, he put on a tough front and left home. Keith would always remember Lance grabbing his hand on the plane and crying softly into his scarf.

Keith was extremely relieved that Shiro and Adam were coming with them. There was such a strong bond of trust between Keith and his dads now that it’d feel like a waste to leave them behind, after he hadn’t even spent half of his current life with them yet. It seemed the two adults were going to live in a separate part of the building meant for teachers, pilots, captains, generals and admirals, while Keith was going to live in dorms with other cadets. After receiving their admittance, Lance and Keith had sent in a letter that they would like to be placed in a room together, and that request had been accepted. That, too, gave Keith peace of mind. He and Lance would be together, like always.

At least, that is what he thought.

~

They spent Lance’s thirteenth birthday in San Diego still, but only a few days after it was time to go. They travelled to the Garrison by plane (it naturally had its own airport), which had been arranged by the higher ups at the Garrison to pay for the travel expenses of their newest professors. Lance and Keith were per request allowed to fly with them, which saved a lot of time, effort, and money.

After arriving at the Garrison, the four males first received a tour around the common parts of the ginormous building, such as the cafeteria, the training grounds – including those of aircraft missions -, the classrooms, corridors, and more. They passed some rooms which they were told not to enter, since “they will be used during one of the further stages of your training”, which excited the boys enormously.

After the tour, the four were split up. A general lead Keith and Lance to their dormitory, while Shiro and Adam were to stay with an admiral, who was going to discuss the teaching programmes with them.

Luckily, their dorm wasn’t that far from the cafeteria.

“Maybe we can sneak out now and then to get some food,” Lance whispered to Keith.

“We’ll get caught,” Keith whispered back.

“Nahhh, I’m a master of stealth.”

“Sure you are,” Keith smirked.

The general opened the door for them and led them in. Their luggage had already been brought to their room, straight from the airplane with which they’d arrived.

“Cool,” Lance said, and he ran inside.

“Make yourself at home,” the general said. “Remember that abundant noise disturbance will result in either a room replacement or expulsion.”

“We’ll be silent like the wind, sir!” Lance said, saluting him.

“Wrong arm, cadet,” the general said with a wink, and Lance quickly saluted with the other arm.

The general left their room, leaving Keith and Lance alone.

Their dorm wasn’t too big, nor too small. It contained two beds, one on each side of the room, and two small sinks at the back. While approaching the room, they had passed by the bathroom, which they shared with about three other dorms. There were plenty of shower cabins and toilets, so they both had no problem with the sharing. Both boys had their own wardrobe, a small desk plus a chair, and a shelf. Lance beamed when he saw that. He had planned to bring his entire space collection, but after inquiring whether he would have enough space to place everything, he had been informed that he would probably not be able to fit it all in his room. With Keith as moral support chilling on his bed, Lance had reluctantly made a selection of his favourite space books and spaceships of his collection. Those favourites included the three that Keith had given him for his eighth birthday, which had filled Keith’s heart with warmth, especially when he saw Lance packing them first. Lance had been allowed to bring his space bedspread, some books and a few space posters, but all the other models, books, and objects he had had to leave at home.

Keith hadn’t really packed that much. Of course he had brought all the presents Lance had given him for his past five birthdays, and the beautiful Christmas-Merry-ithKe socks, plus a few books he liked to read, and his favourite rocket toy. He would bring that thing with him for the rest of his life, he’d decided.

The two didn’t take long arguing which bed was whose, and the rest of the night they spent unpacking and fantasising about their new life. When it was time for dinner, the two headed downstairs to the cafeteria. There they saw Shiro and Adam again, and they all sat together. Dinner at the Garrison was in the shape of a big buffet which you could walk past, serving yourself whatever you wanted.

Shiro and Adam told Keith and Lance about what their new positions meant and how much they would be seeing each other. It appeared that this year Adam was going to teach them about space engineering, while Shiro was going to train them in flight simulators and flight theory. They were probably gonna have about five more classes, all taught by different people. The boys would be graded for each class at the end of each semester, when their grades of smaller and bigger tests and practical assignments were all added together to create their final grade. What was most important however, Shiro and Adam reminded them, was that during these classes they would get to discover what kind of profession would suit them best. Would they become pilots, such as cargo or fighter pilots? Engineers? Explorers? Teachers? Space scientists? They would all figure it out here. Lance immediately expressed he was planning on becoming a pilot on space missions, while Keith wasn’t entirely sure yet. He would first figure out whether this entire place suited him. Lance had always been the one with the space obsession; Keith had received the love for space from the three most important people in his life, and had perhaps fallen in love with it because of that. He would use his time here to discover whether _he_ truly liked it, and then think of what role he would want to play in the future of space.

The lessons were going to start in a few days, so the days in between Keith and Lance were free to do whatever they wanted (except entering forbidden areas or destroying things). The two boys mostly spent their time exploring the Garrison and all the accessible rooms which they hadn’t been shown during the tour. If they weren’t exploring, they were stuffing their mouths in the cafeteria, or snoozing in their dorm room.

Meanwhile, many other students of ages between 13 and 18 arrived, all aiming to become the best of their generation. On a certain day, Keith and Lance met the six other students who they’d be sharing a bathroom with. Two of them, to everyone’s joy, were Pidge and Hunk. The four others were named Nadia Rizavi, James Griffin, Ina Leifsdottir and Ryan Kinkade. It was amazing to see how many different people the Garrison attracted, and everyone was looking forward to the coming year.

The Garrison worked a little different than other high schools. The lecture hours per week were not that much, but that meant that they only had a month-long summer vacation, from mid-July until mid-August, and they got about two weeks off during Christmas so they could go back home (or decide to stay at the Garrison).

When Keith and Lance received their timetables during the main assembly in the cafeteria, they discovered how many different subjects there were. In the first year all the offered subjects were mandatory, but from the second year onwards they could select a bunch of classes next to their compulsory ones, so as to create a parcel which suited their interests and would slowly begin to shape their specialisation.

Some classes they had this year were Astronomy; Maths; English; a combination of Physics, Science and Biology (PSB in short), which focused on space; Flight Theory, which, they were told, would partly turn into practical lessons in the second year; Space Engineering; History, and Combat Theory.

“Combat Theory?” Keith asked perplexed when he read it. “Are we going to fight in space?”

“I… guess so?” Lance replied unsure, studying his own timetable. “Maybe we learn like, what to do if we encounter situations in space where we need to fight. That doesn’t sound too bad! I’d love to know some martial arts.”

“That’s true,” Keith said with raised eyebrows. It would probably be really cool to study.

“It’s a shame it’s not much practical stuff yet,” Lance said with a pout. “I wanna fly in the simulator already!”

“I guess this year we’ll learn useful stuff like how to fly in that simulator in the first place,” Keith snickered.

“Hey guys, what class are you in?” Hunk’s voice resounded behind them. He and Pidge joined them with their own timetables in their hands.

“1B,” the two boys said in unison.

“Great! We’re in the same one! Looks like we’re not yet done being classmates.”

“Awesome,” Keith smiled. “Looking forward to it.”

Their first lessons began on August 14th. They had introductory classes of PSB and Space Engineering today, and Lance and Keith listened with shimmering eyes, both so excited they could hardly wait to start for real.

After two weeks of classes, Keith had concluded two things: one, this was by far not as hard as he thought it would be, and two, he loved every second of it. What he loved even more, was that he was learning all this with Lance by his side. They sat together in every class (just like before), often did their homework together, and tried to be placed together in every group project.

Lance, however, noticed some different things in those few weeks. The first one, was that the lessons weren’t as easy as he had thought; the second, that there were some classes that he found hard to follow; and the third, that Keith regularly had to help him out with his homework, since his best friend didn’t seem to have a problem with any question.

But Lance enjoyed himself immensely. The subjects were incredibly interesting and he knew he had made the right decision. Despite having some trouble following the lessons, he didn’t let it bring him down and worked as hard as he could. Even when Keith had to give him a hand often, he remained positive. He had always known Keith was smart, and he was happy to see that Keith seemed to belong here as well, since he hadn’t always been too sure about this decision.

After their first midterms, Lance had mostly received B’s and C’s, while Keith got only A’s and A-.

“Wow, Keith!” Lance exclaimed, looking at Keith’s scorecard. “That’s amazing, look at you!”

“Thanks,” Keith said, studying his grades happily. “I didn’t think I’d have done so well.”

“Man, you’re smart,” Hunk said, looking over his shoulder. “I only got an A for Space Engineering and PSB. How did you do, Pidge?”

“Oh, the regular,” Pidge said, adjusting her glasses. Hunk leaned into her and looked.

“Wow… A’s for Maths, PSB, Space Engineering, History…” He snickered. “Though you’re not very good at Combat Theory, are you?”

“Hmpf,” Pidge reacted, looking the other way. “I have a beta brain. Not a physical one.”

“How did you do, Lance?” Keith asked in a friendly tone.

“Oh, uh…” He kind of didn’t want to show his scorecard. The only A he had received was for Astronomy. For the subjects that the others hadn’t gotten A’s for, they’d received a B- at the least, so Lance was the only one with C’s. “Mine – mine’s alright…” He reluctantly showed them his grades.

“Ah, not bad!” Keith said. He looked at Lance with nothing but support in his eyes. “I knew you would be the best at Astronomy.”

Lance put on a small smile. Keith had received an A- for Astronomy, while Lance got an A+. It was the only subject he was better at than Keith, apparently.

“Looks like we’re all easily gonna pass this year,” Hunk said, putting his hands behind his head.

“Yep. I’ll work my ass off to catch up to you,” Lance said, patting Keith on the shoulder. Keith smiled.

But it wasn’t easy. At all. Lance worked as hard as he could, doing all his homework and more if he had the time, going to the teachers after classes to ask questions, and fooling around less and less. But it was still hard. Even the grades for small tests were always below Keith’s.

Gradually, going to Keith to ask for help started weighing on him. Starting at the same time with his homework but seeing Keith finishing it without any trouble while he was still struggling halfway, became painful to see. Why was Keith so much better at all this than him? Especially when he wasn’t even 100% sure he wanted this, while Lance was… He tried to violently shake that thought out of his head. _What a stupid thing to think!_ he thought to himself. _Keith is working just as hard as I am. He deserves this just as much!_

But when the results of the semester’s finals arrived, and Lance saw little improvement on his own sheet while Keith remained with those A’s, he felt the first painful stab in his chest.

“Man, catching up to you sure isn’t easy,” he said with an awkward smile. “Good job, Keith.”

“Thank you, Lance,” Keith said. Behind them, Hunk and Pidge were discussing the subjects they’d improved on this time. Lance pinched his scorecard. Why was it so hard for him and so easy for the others?

~

During Christmas they went back to their parents’. Enthusiastically, Lance and Keith shared their experiences with Lance’s family. Of course Lance’s parents and siblings were very proud of his results, but when they saw Keith’s, they were so impressed they hardly knew what to say. That was when Lance felt the second painful stab.

The situation continued in the second semester. Lance became so engulfed in studying that he hardly had time to hang out with Keith. That made the latter sad, and on a certain afternoon he approached Lance carefully.

“Lance,” he began, “do you… need some help?”

When Keith’s words reached his ears, Lance felt a sting of jealousy. Yes, he needed help, but no, he didn’t want it. He knew Keith meant well, but he just couldn’t… he just couldn’t accept it. This was so humiliating, he was too embarrassed to look Keith in the eyes. So he kept staring intently at his textbook when he answered: “No thanks. I think I got this.”

Behind him, Keith nodded slowly. “Okay.”

A few seconds after, he heard the soft _zweep_ of the doors, meaning that Keith had left the room.

Lance’s chest was burning.

~

From that moment onwards, the two friends spoke less and less. During class they were silent, because Lance wanted to follow the lesson and work on his homework when they had the time; in the afternoon and evening they didn’t hang out, since Lance wanted to study. Only during dinner they sat down together and talked, but their conversations became less fun and genuine, and more forced. Eventually, Lance found it really hard to look in Keith’s eyes, so he started avoiding them. He always congratulated Keith on his good grades, of course, but they didn’t discuss their grades any more than that. Lance would hear the conversations between Keith, Hunk and Pidge about the tests, but he never joined, since he always heard the things he’d done wrong on the test.

~

Keith didn’t really know what was happening. He understood that Lance was unhappy with his grades and that he wanted to work as much as he could to become better. And Keith also understood how unfair it was that he managed all this so easily, while Lance worked so much harder than him and still didn’t receive the grades he hoped for. Keith didn’t know what to do. He wanted to reach out and help Lance, but he knew that it would make Lance’s mood even worse. So he kept quiet. When Lance was studying, and during class, he was silent. Since living with Shiro and Adam his social skills had improved, so his craving for human interaction made him turn to Pidge and Hunk, and he found himself talking to them more often than to Lance. For literal years not a day had passed that he talked to someone else more than to Lance, not counting his dads. This was new, and extremely unpleasant.

But he just didn’t know what to do.

~

The midterms of the second semester were… still rather difficult for Lance. Although he had managed to make many subjects from a C into a B, Astronomy had turned from an A into a B again, and now he had no A’s left. Upon seeing his scorecard, he wanted to cry. Why could he not do it?

Keith was silent next to him, since he had received only A’s again. Lance heard how Hunk leaned forward to discuss his grades with Keith, but he couldn’t react.

Today, it was Shiro who had handed them their scorecards. When everyone had left the class, including Keith, Lance went to him.

“Mr Shiro?” he began.

“Hey there, Lance,” Shiro said, gathering his materials. “Are you alright, my boy?”

“I’m – I’m fine,” he said. Then he shook his head. “No… not really. Look.”

He gave Shiro his scorecard. His teacher looked it over, and then shot Lance a questionable look. “This looks sufficient to me. What about it?”

“‘Sufficient’,” Lance repeated in a murmur. “That’s all it is.”

Shiro took a seat on the corner of his desk. “Is something bothering you?”

“Yes,” Lance said and he looked up at him. “Mr Shiro, I feel like I’m giving it all I have, but it’s just not good enough.” He felt tears sting in his eyes. “I don’t know what to do anymore. I thought I was made for this place, but…” He sniffed, and covered his eyes with his hand.

“Oh Lance,” Shiro said in a soothing tone. He came down from his desk and placed his hands on Lance’s shoulders. “It’s not all about your grades, you know that right? All the teachers agree that you’re one of our most driven students. You truly want this, and everyone knows how hard you’re trying.”

“I just want to be as good as Keith,” Lance mumbled, wiping a tear from his cheek. “We were always about just as good at every subject, but he’s way smarter than me here. It’s… it’s hard to face him.”

Shiro rubbed his shoulders in a friendly manner. “I understand, and I’m sure Keith does, too. It’s never fun to see your best friend doing better, but it can also be a big motivator.”

“It is! Or it – it was, and I know he’s not looking down on me, but I just… I’m just…” And he broke down. Sobs prevented him from saying another word.

“Oh Lance…” Shiro said again. “It’s all going to be alright.” He knelt down in front of him. “Do you want some extra help studying?”

“M-maybe,” Lance hiccuped.

“Alright then. I’ll help you out. I’m a busy adult so I won’t have that much time, but how about we start with once every two weeks?”

Lance looked up at Shiro with wet eyes. “Would you do that?”

“Of course.” Shiro smiled one of his genuine smiles. “I’ve known you for almost your entire life. It makes me sad to see you so unhappy.” He got up again. “How about Wednesday night, starting next week?”

Lance nodded. “That’s fine.”

“Alright then.” Shiro put his hands on his hips. “Now don’t be sad anymore, okay? You’re a smart boy. I know you have it in you.”

“Thank you, Mr Shiro,” Lance said, still sad. As Shiro put his materials in his bag and picked it up, Lance spoke up again. “Mr Shiro, is it possible to stay at the Garrison during summer vacation?”

Shiro halted in his motions to look at him. The expression on his face was friendly, but concerned. “Yes, that is possible.”

Lance nodded. “Then I’ll stay here.”

His teacher pulled the bag over his shoulder. “It’s up to you, Lance.”

~

The last few months of their first year went by quickly. It was so weird for Keith to be so close to Lance all the time, and yet to talk with him so little. He tried to strike up conversation, but it never really worked. Keith wasn’t too good at starting a conversation despite his social skills – it had always been Lance who came to Keith. From the moment they met, Lance had been the assertive one. Now Keith wanted to do nothing else than help Lance out, but it was really hard to talk to him. Lance was evading him, evading his eyes, evading conversations with him and sometimes even being in the same room as him. Keith could slowly feel himself getting more and more isolated. Despite the company of Hunk and Pidge, Keith felt alone. He wanted to be with nobody more than he wanted to be with Lance. He wanted Lance’s attention, to see Lance’s smile, to hear Lance’s voice and talk to him for nights and days on end, like when they were kids. He couldn’t even share with Lance how he liked the Garrison so far. He was scared to make Lance feel bad if he talked to him and reminded him of the difference in their grades. It was really hard, and Keith missed him immensely.

He went back to San Diego with only Shiro and Adam, while Lance stayed at the Garrison.

Summer was extremely boring. Of course, Keith thought, _of course_ , now that Lance was hardly here, he discovered how incredibly close they had been for the past few years. It felt as if they had been sharing the same lives, and a part of him had broken itself off of him and there was nothing he could do about it.

He was so worried. Would Lance still act the same towards him when he came back? Would he still avoid him and refuse to talk to him? Keith wasn’t sure if he could handle that. He would change everything about himself if that would fix their bond, but he knew that purposely messing up his tests wouldn’t make anything better. So he was stuck. Stuck in a cycle of how to return to how they were and not finding a solution.

He missed Lance so much, it was unbearable.

~

Unfortunately, things didn’t get much better when he returned to the Garrison mid-August. Lance greeted him with a “hello”, a “welcome back”, and a nod, and that was it.

“How was your summer?” Keith asked, putting his suitcase on the end of his bed.

“I’ve just been studying,” Lance said. He sat down on his bed and lifted up one of his textbooks. “And yours?”

“It was okay,” Keith said with a shrug. “A little boring, without you.”

Lance smiled, but it wasn’t a happy smile. He wasn’t looking at Keith. “Sorry.”

Keith’s heart took up speed. “It-it’s okay. Next year, maybe.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Lance said. A long silence fell. Eventually Lance took a deep breath. “Alright, gotta get back to work. Still haven’t done everything I wanted to do today.”

He got up and went to his desk. Keith opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something, but since he had no idea what exactly, he closed it again and lied down on his bed.

“Oh,” he suddenly said and jerked up. “Happy birthday.”

Lance turned around with a weak smile. He finally looked Keith in the eyes. “Thanks man.”

Keith jumped off his bed and opened his suitcase, taking a small package out of it. “I got you this,” he said. He shuffled to Lance and handed it over. Before Lance got a chance to open it, Keith swiftly left their bedroom.

Lance unwrapped the present, which appeared to be two knit socks, one with the text “Happy La” and the other “Birthday nce”. It was rugged and not that skilfully made, but yet his heart swelled seeing it. He clutched them in his hands, as tears pricked in his eyes again. He missed Keith. He missed him so much. But facing him still felt impossible.

~

This year, Flight Theory included practical training in the simulator. Everyone was incredibly excited, including Lance and Keith. They wanted to be excited together, but yet neither of them had the courage to talk to the other.

Shiro taught them today. As he connected the information from the previous year to the practical uses of the simulator, he showed them what it looked like on the inside. He explained what they would be seeing in the simulator and what sort of mission they would have to complete today in order to pass.

Lance went with Pidge and Hunk, and did quite alright. Keith went with Ina from their dorm, and a girl named Jenny, who was new in their class this year. Keith was, if Lance had to describe it in one word, _fantastic_. Lance couldn’t stop staring at the screen on which all three participants were shown. Keith was made for this. Lance knew it. How much he would give to do the simulator together with him.

“Hmpf, what a show-off,” someone muttered on his left. Lance turned his head around in anger, and saw that it was James Griffin. If Lance was correct, James had screwed this assignment up big time. He guessed he wasn’t the only one jealous of Keith’s skills anymore…

~

It continued like this for a while. Lance and Keith didn’t speak much, unless necessary; Lance mostly studied in his free time and still went to Shiro’s office for extra lessons. He felt that they helped him greatly, actually, so he wasn’t feeling so bad all the time anymore.

Keith was feeling more and more lonely, however. He hardly spoke to anyone these days. He had been trying to suppress it, but gradually memories of his time at the orphanage had started resurfacing in his brain, and it didn’t make him happy. He didn’t want to be this alone.

He didn’t know that his distant and gloomy attitude rubbed off wrongly on other students, especially James Griffin. Without his knowledge, word spread around about why Keith was Shiro and Adam’s son, and that he had come from an orphanage.

One day, shortly after another simulator class taught by Commander Iverson, in which James had been scolded for messing up and Keith had completed the assignment flawlessly, James came to stand next to Keith.

“We all know the only reason _you’re_ here, is because of Shiro and Adam,” he hissed. Keith could feel the blood in his cheeks drain away from his face when he heard James. His heartbeat took up speed, while flashbacks of his fights in the orphanage seeped back into his memory. Back then, they used to start with passive aggressive words like these, too. He could feel something horribly wrong approaching. “I wonder why they brought you with them anyway? I heard you were an orphan before they took you in.” He clenched his fists, trying to withhold them from trembling. But it was a wasted effort: they were already shaking hard. “It’s unfair to let you take part in this programme. I bet the only reason they wanted you was because your mommy and daddy–”

It would’ve taken him one more word, just one more, and Keith would’ve lashed out. But it appeared there was no need, as someone else had already jumped forward in his place and punched James to the ground.

Keith blinked in shock, before he realised it was Lance who was now on top of James, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him wildly.

“You take that _back_! You take that back you filthy, stinking piece of trash!”

“L-Lance!” Keith exclaimed.

James tried pushing Lance away. “What, are you his personal bodyguard or somethin’?”

“Shut _up_!” And Lance punched him again.

“Lance, stop!” Keith exclaimed, overwhelmed with worry. He’d never seen Lance this mad, and he had _definitely_ never seen him punching someone. He approached him and took him by the shoulder.

“Step back, Keith! I won’t let a single insult leave this fucker’s mouth ever again. How dare he say such a horrible thing to you. I’ll – I’ll…!”

“ _Hey_!” Commander Iverson re-entered the room in a rush, followed by two other teachers. “Hey you! Break it up!” He grabbed Lance by the shoulder that Keith wasn’t holding and yanked him away from James, who had a big bruise adorning his left eye. James brought his hand up and wiped his hurt face.

“To the principal’s office, _now_! Both of you!”

Iverson hauled James up with one firm pull and pushed him and Lance to the door. Keith followed quickly.

A minute later, the three boys were sitting outside the principal’s office. James was the first to be called in, so Lance and Keith were left with the two of them. In silence.

“Lance…” Keith began softly. “Are you okay?”

Lance didn’t look at him. “I’m fine.”

“Why did you do that?” Keith asked.

“Because he’s a loser, that’s why.” Lance buried his face in his hands. “I can’t believe he actually said that to you. The damn nerve…”

Keith wasn’t sure what to say. He and Lance hadn’t talked for a long while, and the atmosphere between them was still a little awkward. But Lance had defended him and even fought for him; then what did his previous behaviour mean? Did Lance not dislike him? He just didn’t understand it anymore.

They heard a series of hurried footsteps, and Shiro and Adam turned the corner, panting.

“Keith, Lance, we were told to come here as quickly as possible,” Shiro said. “What happened? Why are you sitting here?”

“James is now inside,” Keith said.

“James? James Griffin?” Adam asked. “Why?”

Keith wasn’t sure how to explain, but Lance opened his mouth, and without looking at his teachers he shouted, “Because he hurt Keith!”

“What?” Shiro and Adam said in unison.

“He insulted Keith for being an orphan. Said it was only thanks to you guys he got in. He was about to say something horrible about you two and his parents before I smashed his face.”

The eyes of Keith’s dads widened. “Is that true, Keith?”

Keith didn’t dare look at them, so he nodded, with his eyes downcast.

“I see.” That was a tone he had never heard in Shiro’s voice before.

“Hm. Looks like we’re gonna have to have a little talk with Mr Griffin,” Adam declared.

Despite his dads' composure, Keith could hear a deep, _deep_ anger in their words. He absolutely wouldn’t want to be in James Griffin’s shoes right now.

The doors to the office opened with a _zweep_ , and James walked out, eyes downcast and a sullen look on his face. “She says it’s your turn,” he said to Lance. Then he suddenly noticed the presence of his teachers, and all colour left his face.

“Hello James,” Shiro said. “Please wait here while we go in with Lance for a bit.”

“Y-yes. Of course, sirs.”

And while Lance, Shiro and Adam entered the office, James sat down next to Keith, his hands folded in his lap, bouncing his knee nervously.

Keith was quiet.

Only after a few minutes, the three returned.

“Now, James, why don’t you go for a little walk with us? We would like to talk to you for a bit,” Adam told James.

While James swallowed thickly and got up, Shiro came over to Keith. “Are you alright, my boy?” Keith nodded, gazing at his hands. Shiro kneeled in front of him, looked him in the eyes and softly asked, “Can we tell him about what truly happened?”

Keith raised his head, glancing from Shiro, to the trembling James, and then to Lance, who knew about everything. Then he nodded, giving his dad permission to tell James his story.

“Alright,” Shiro said, smiling reassuringly. He placed his hand on Keith’s head shortly, before returning to Adam and turning the corner with him and James.

Lance still looked angry. “I’ll keep an eye on him. He can be sure of that.” He buried his hands in his pockets and started stomping off.

“Wait!” Keith said. He jumped up and ran after Lance. “Lance, wait.”

But Lance’s back remained turned to him. “Sorry. I got a lot of homework to do.”

Oh no. After all this, were they seriously going back to not talking? No. No no no. A cold sweat broke out. He couldn’t do this. Not anymore. If Lance was not going to talk to him anymore – if he was going to leave him too, like his mother had done when he was younger, he…

Panic rose in his body. He leaped forward, and grabbed Lance by the hand.

“Please, Lance, don’t abandon me,” Keith found himself begging, holding onto his hand like a lifeline. Tears streamed down his cheeks before he could stop it, and sobs ripped through his body. “I won’t be able to bear it.”

Lance turned to Keith, his eyes widening. A less oblivious person than Keith could see that Lance’s heart broke in a thousand pieces upon seeing his best friend crying.

“W-w-w-wait, what are you saying?” He began. “I won’t abandon you?” He pressed his other hand over Keith’s, worry and guilt on his face. “I could never…”

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Keith cried. He clenched Lance’s fingers even tighter. “I wouldn’t know what to do if you left me.”

“Keith…” After a few moments of hesitation, Lance gently pulled his hands loose and wrapped his arms around Keith. “I’ll never abandon you. How could I ever?” He was silent as Keith softly sobbed in his arms. He closed his eyes. “I was just… a little jealous… I think.” Keith’s sobs became slower, a sign that he was listening to what Lance was saying. “I had always imagined myself top of the class, being one of the youngest people to be sent into space. But I’m far from the best. _You_ are the best. I think I felt like you were moving forward without me, and that made me distance myself.” His grip tightened. “I’m sorry, Keith. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Slowly, Keith’s arms trailed up to wrap themselves around Lance in return. “Being the best of the class means little to me if you’re not there,” he confessed.

Lance chuckled. “Don’t say that. Be proud of yourself! Despite my jealousy I was always proud to be able to think ‘that is my best friend, giving it his all and beating all our classmates’ asses,’ even though that included mine.”

Keith laughed softly.

“Forgive me, okay?” Lance mumbled. “I’ll work as hard as I can to be supportive from now on.”

“It’s okay,” Keith said. “You don’t have to be.” He leaned back a bit so that he could look in Lance’s face. “If there’s anyone here who deserves to be the youngest space pilot, it’s you. No one works harder than you.”

Lance, flustered, brought his hand to his neck and admitted, “It is a little frustrating that I still can’t beat you while working as hard as I can.”

Keith smiled. “I’m sorry.”

Lance gently pushed him away and placed his hands on Keith’s shoulders. “Don’t be. One day I’ll be on the same rank as you. You’re my best friend, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be my rival also.” He winked, which made Keith’s heart skip a beat, for some reason. “Am I right?”

“Yes, I guess so,” Keith responded, and smiled in return.

~

“James, we would like to talk to you about the effects your words can have on people,” Shiro started. James suddenly looked really small, scared to look the two grown-up men in the eyes.

“And we would like to talk to you about our son, and his life before he came to the Garrison,” Adam added. “As it seems you do not know much about it.”

James was too scared to talk, so he nodded.

“Keith ended up in the orphanage because his mother disappeared when he was two and his father died in a fire when he was four,” Shiro began. “The orphanage was not a good place for him. He was sad and heartbroken, and yet no one made an effort to heal him, not the children, not the supervisors.”

“We saw it immediately when we went there to adopt a child,” Adam said. “Behind this wall of anger and indifference was a sad and lonely boy, who needed nothing but a warm heart ensuring him that everything would be okay again.”

“He was in that orphanage for three years,” said Shiro. “Three years in which no one celebrated his birthday with him and no one played with him.”

“We gave him as much of our love as we could when he joined our family. It took him a while before he warmed up to us, as he had come to completely distrust adults and other children.”

“Lance was his first friend,” Shiro said. “They’ve been friends for seven years now. You can count on it that he will defend Keith to the ends of the world, since he’s always stood by his side no matter what state Keith was in.”

“Your actions and words have consequences, James,” Adam said with a most serious look on his face. “What you said to Keith was extremely hurtful and unthoughtful, and we would like you to apologise to our son the next time you see him. Is that clear?”

James Griffin nodded. There were tears dropping out of his eyes onto the hands on his lap.

“In the future, please try not to insult people whose lives and histories you do not know,” Shiro said. “Of course it’s best not to insult anyone for no reason, but especially when your insults are going to involve someone’s past or a part of their lives which you have no knowledge of.”

“Keith has suffered enough in his life. We will not tolerate you making his experience here any harder.”

“If we ever hear you’ve insulted Keith with this again, we will write to your parents,” Shiro said. “I’m sure they’ll not be happy to hear this.”

The two adults were finished. They had spoken in a kind, but clearly disappointed tone. The tone of fathers whose children have been hurt. James Griffin couldn’t say a word, as he was now sobbing into his fist.

“Come on, now,” Adam said. He leaned forward and placed a hand on James’ knee. “Everyone deserves a second chance. Apologise to Keith and we will not speak of this again.”

“You chose the wrong family to mess with, my boy,” Shiro said with a chuckle.

James rubbed his eyes and nodded.

“I’m sorry, sirs,” he said in a small voice. “I’ll apologise.”

“That’s good,” Adam nodded. “Now, let’s all head back, shall we? There’s still a lot to do before this day comes to its end.”

They all got up, and walked in opposite directions.

~

“I’m, so sorry, Keith.”

They were standing in the middle of the hallway, James in front of Keith, and Lance standing next to Keith with his hands on his hips. He indeed looked a bit like a bodyguard right now.

“Shiro and Adam told me about everything and… I never should’ve said that. It was really mean and unthoughtful. I’m sorry.”

“You better be,” Lance said, his jaws clenched together. “I won’t let you live this down a second time.”

Keith smiled a little hearing those words. The last few hours they’d just spent with the two of them, and it felt as if those few months of silence had never happened. Even if the entire world would attack him, Keith would be able to handle it now. Lance had promised him that he would never do this again, and seek his help when needed. He also said he was still aiming to become better than Keith, a challenge which Keith would happily lose.

“Same for me,” Keith said. James heard the smile in Keith’s voice and looked up. “It was a really shitty thing to say, but no one’s perfect.”

“I won’t ever do it again,” James said, shaking his head. “Will you… accept me as a friend?”

“I won’t,” Lance said right away. “You gotta prove yourself first.”

James looked at him with an expression that said, _I wasn’t talking to you_.

“It’s okay,” Keith said with a shrug. “Sure. Why not.”

“But if you plan to hurt him again, you have to go through me first.”

Keith giggled. It was a cute, happy sound that hadn’t been heard in these hallways for a long time. “That’s enough now, Lance.”

Lance, extremely happy to hear Keith’s adorable laugh again, swung his arm around his shoulder, turned him around and pressed him close. “Sure. C’mon, let’s get some food!”

And they walked in the direction of the cafeteria.

Ryan Kinkade, James’ roommate, came to stand next to him. “They’re a li’l cute, huh.”

James snorted. “Whatever. Let’s go.” And the two walked in the opposite direction.

~

Life at the Garrison became absolutely wonderful. Lance and Keith were back on their usual terms, which meant endless chatting, teenage-boy laughter in every room they came, supportive compliments over each other’s accomplishments, and teamwork. Strong, powerful, beautiful teamwork. The first time they entered the simulator together, with Nadia Rizavi as their third teammate, they gained the highest score of their year and even broke the five-year-old record. Shiro, teaching the class, beamed with pride when they exited the simulator high-fiving.

He crossed his arms when they came over for evaluation. “Man, it sure is good to see you two back to your old selves.”

“And it feels good, too,” Lance said. He looked over at Keith and grinned.

After Shiro’s evaluation they returned to the group, where the girl named Jenny leaned over. “That was awesome! You guys are amazing. Can I join you two next time?”

Lance blinked swiftly upon seeing her sparkling, enthusiastic eyes. “Uhm, sure. Thank you – Jenny, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right,” Jenny said happily.

In the following simulator classes, she indeed sat with the two boys. Their teamwork went well, and they received wonderful grades during their group projects.

Jenny was kind, bright, driven, and a very motivated student. Her excitement for the Garrison and her will to get the best grades reminded Keith a little of Lance. It wasn’t surprising to see that the two got along well.

Keith didn’t feel like he had to worry, though. After everything that happened, Lance didn’t spend even an hour without either talking or looking at Keith, to reassure him that it would never happen again.

The warm feelings Lance had caused in Keith’s body returned more frequently, just like they had done in their childhood when they just got to know each other.

Man, Keith sure loved being friends with Lance.

~

Their second year passed really smoothly. Keith and Lance worked together during many projects and assignments; they had returned to doing their homework together, which helped Lance a great deal. Lance still also went to Shiro for extra lessons on Wednesday night. But because everything was better now, both his understanding of the subjects and his bond with Keith, school wasn’t weighing so hard on him anymore. When they received their grades after the midterms of the second semester, Lance had four beautiful A’s, his grade for Astronomy was higher than Keith’s, and they had the exact same grade for Flight Theory and Simulator Practice. Lance was so happy that he hugged Keith from the side. “I did it! I actually did it! I knew I could catch up to you!”

“You’re the best, Lance,” Keith said, happy because of the way Lance rubbed his face against Keith’s cheek.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” Lance said, leaning back. “So, that means I actually gotta say _we_ did it. We’re a good team, aren’t we?”

“Absolutely,” Keith smiled. “The very best.”

“Hey there, Lance.” It was Jenny. She was standing in front of his table, holding her scorecard in her hands. “Got good grades?”

“Definitely. Wanna exchange?”

“Sure.” Jenny and Lance gave each other their scorecards and looked them over.

“You’re really smart, Jenny,” Lance said with admiration.

“So are you, Lance. My grade for the simulator was all thanks to you two, though.” She looked over Lance’s paper and smiled at him and Keith. “Thanks for letting me join you.”

“Anytime,” Lance said, handing her her sheet back. “You’re a valuable asset.”

Jenny giggled. Keith frowned when he discovered how cute she looked when doing it. Lance beamed when he discovered it. “Thanks. That’s good to hear. Hey, I was thinking. Since we have a week off after the tests, do you wanna go out for a drink with me at the Starlight Cafe?”

Lance was surprised by the question. “O-oh, uhm.” For some reason, his eyes went to Keith.

“Why are you looking at me?” Keith blinked in surprise. “Go if you want to.”

Lance smiled. “Alright then.” He turned back to Jenny. “Sure! Would be fun.”

“Awesome,” Jenny said. “I’ll hit you up about a day then, alright?”

“Sounds good. Wanna exchange numbers?”

“Yesss.” This time they handed each other their phones and added their contact information.

“Great,” Lance said, giving it back and receiving his own. “I’ll see you later then.”

“Yep. Later! Bye Keith!”

“Bye,” Keith said with a little wave, and Jenny skipped back to her chair.

Lance was looking after her with his chin on his hand. “She’s really sweet, huh.”

“Uh… yeah, I guess so,” Keith said vaguely. He felt a little gloomy after this conversation, though he couldn’t say why.

“I’ve never gone on a date before,” Lance said, still looking at Jenny. “I’m excited.”

“I bet it’s a lot of fun,” Keith said casually. He kind of wanted to drop this subject, but didn’t want to make Lance feel bad, so he didn’t say anything.

“You gotta help me choose clothes and stuff, alright?” Lance said, returning his gaze to Keith.

Keith folded his scorecard. “Yeah, anything you need.”

“Great! I’m looking forward to it.”

Lance and Jenny’s date was in that same week. Keith helped Lance pick an outfit and waved him goodbye as he went on his way to the Garrison’s cafe. He bit his lip anxiously, though he knew there was nothing to be anxious about.

~

After the date, not that much changed. Lance and Jenny talked a little more, but still not more than Lance and Keith, which was a relief for Keith. At some point, however, Lance inquired what Keith would do if he got into a relationship with Jenny.

Question marks jumped from Keith’s head. “What I’d do? Uh… nothing much, I think? Is there anything I should do?”

“Oh – no, I don’t mean like that.” He dropped his hands onto his lap. “I was wondering if you’d be okay with it.”

Keith was struck by the question. “I…” He blinked in confusion. “It’s not like I have a say, right? You should do what _you_ want, no matter how I feel about it.”

“That is… true, I guess.” Then he blushed, and with an awkward laugh rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked such a weird question.”

“Ah, no no no, I understand,” Keith said quickly, waving his hands. “I appreciate it. I am your best friend after all.”

“Yeah, it’s mainly because I spend every minute of every day with you, and it might change a little now,” Lance explained.

“Yes, I get it,” Keith said. “But it’s fine, if it makes you happy, that’s all that matters.”

Lance’s eyes started shining. “Awh, you’re really the best best friend ever, Keith! I’ll make hundred percent sure to not neglect you, of course.”

Keith smiled. “You better.”

~

Before the start of summer vacation, Lance and Jenny were still not a thing. Lance went back to San Diego with Keith this year. There they rambled to Lance’s family about their subjects and grades and friends, and Lance brought up Jenny. His parents and siblings were excited upon hearing how interested he was in her, although Veronica seemed to silently question something, as she kept looking between Keith and Lance with a puzzling look on her face. Keith never tried to find out why she did that, though.

That summer the two boys spent together to make up for last year. They went to the beach a lot, built sandcastles and re-enacted Vines, such as the sand-guardian Vine. They celebrated Lance’s birthday, on which Lance wore the socks Keith had made for him backwards. It was during that vacation that Lance discovered that Keith had made the socks with his mom’s help. He loved Keith immensely in that moment, and thanked him from the bottom of his heart.

They had a wonderful time, and went back to the Garrison mid-August.

There, it wasn’t until November, when both boys were 15, that Keith received the news.

“Jenny and I are dating, Keith.”

Keith had to control himself not to choke on his juice. He swallowed it with great effort and looked Lance in the eyes.

“That’s – that’s great, right? Congrats!”

“Thanks,” Lance grinned. “She’s amazing. I’m glad we took the time to get to know each other before making it official.”

“Yeah, that sounds like the right thing to do.”

There was something strange happening inside Keith. For some reason, he was telling himself really hard to “act normal”, and meanwhile he tried to listen to Lance but only hearing half of what he was saying. Damn, why was he making this so unnecessarily hard? He could just ask him about details, but he didn’t really want to know them. He felt like he should propose a toast or something, but also didn’t feel like it. He was denying his true feelings, because deep down, he knew that he wasn’t happy that Lance was in love with someone and dating that person now.

But he would never admit that. Not even to himself.

In the months following this declaration, Lance and Jenny met up often. Keith didn’t see them that much together, because it seemed he escaped before that happened, or Lance took Keith’s presence into account and made sure not to show too much affection when he was around. Keith felt weird, but he could see how happy Lance was, so he absolutely wouldn’t interfere.

It went on like that for about half a year, until Lance made the next striking declaration.

They were sitting in their room, Lance on Keith’s bed and Keith with his back against Lance’s. Lance was seated on Keith’s pillow, not doing much, while Keith was reading a book.

Suddenly Lance started talking.

“Keith.” Keith looked up at the moment Lance buried his face in his hands, shaking a little. “I… I think I might be bi.”

Keith blinked a few times. “Bi?”

“Yeah, you know?” Lance peeked through his fingers. “Bisexual, that you like boys _and_ girls?”

Understanding awakened in Keith’s eyes. “Oh, I see.” He waited for a few seconds. “How do you know?”

Lance pulled a face. “That is too embarrassing to tell _you_.”

For some reason Keith’s heartbeat took up speed. “Why me?” Did it have to do with him in some way? Was it perhaps…?

“Because I’m crushing on one of your dads.”

Multiple emotions rose up in Keith’s body and started whirling around, which made it hard to distinguish which was which. The one that he could pick out easily, though, was disappointment. He just wasn’t sure why that emotion was the most clear.

“Oh.” He swallowed. “Which one?”

“Well – Shiro, of course. I mean, I see him almost every day. And… during the extra lessons.” He blushed a little.

“R-right.” Keith wasn’t sure what to say. Lance was crushing on his dad. That was in some way awfully sad; couldn’t he seek his male love interests a little _younger_ in age? Like his own for example? Like Keith’s?

Lance was sulking somewhat. “You don’t mind?”

“What – how could I mind?” Keith said, one of his eyebrows quirked up. “It sucks for you, not me.”

Lance pushed out a laugh. “Guess you’re right about that.”

“Wait, does Jenny know?”

“Not yet. But I think I’ll tell her soon. Not that I’m crushing on Shiro though, just that I’m bi.”

“Right, okay.”

Somehow it was still hard for Keith to grasp that Lance was dating Jenny. Maybe it hurt him to such an extent that his brain just decided to completely ignore it. It probably helped that he rarely saw them together. It was hard to bear, for some reason. Probably because it felt like he was losing his best friend to someone else… right?

“So, what’ll you do?”

Lance crossed his legs and placed his hands over his shins. “Uhm, nothing. Wallowing in the fact that I’m crushing on someone unreachable, even while having a girlfriend.”

“That _is_ slightly problematic.”

“I know, but did you know that Jenny is… kinda super open about relationships? In more ways than one, like, she told me she’s okay with her boyfriends kissing other people, as long as it’s not more than that.”

“Seriously?” Keith stared into nothing for a few seconds, trying to imagine it. “Man, I don’t think I could do that.”

“Right? Makes sense. I haven’t really thought about it, but I’m trying to copy her views.”

“Why would you?”

“Well, if she tells me I’m free to kiss someone else, but I tell her that she’s not, it’d be kinda unequal, right?”

“Uhm, maybe… But I think your feelings are valid too, like, I can imagine not wanting your partner to kiss someone else even if they’d be fine with you kissing another person.”

“True.” Lance pressed his thumb and index finger against his chin. “Hm, I’ll think about it.”

Keith sighed. “Relationships sound like a hassle.”

A chuckle came from the bed. “Nooo, what are you saying? They’re fun.” He slid from the bed and landed in front of Keith. “I wonder when it’s your turn.”

“Uh… not soon, I think.”

“But Keith, you’d be able to get a boyfriend or girlfriend within _seconds_!”

That made Keith blush. “Why do you say that?”

“Well, for many reasons. You’re kind, fun, definitely not ugly.”

Despite Keith’s bashfulness, he chuckled. “Have you started looking differently at me too, now that you know you’re bi?”

Lance laughed. “Would that be a bad thing?”

Keith smiled warmly. “Not really.”

Lance was struck by that expression for a few seconds, staring at it until Keith blinked and looked away. Lance huffed a soft laugh. “That’s good then.” He raised his arms to the ceiling and stretched himself out. “Alright, I’m gonna do some training. See you at dinner.”

“Alright, see ya.”

Naturally, Keith was unaware of how fast Lance’s heart was beating when he left the room. All because Keith’s smile was still burning on his retina.

~

Their third year was even more exciting than last year, since they were choosing their directions more and more. Some subjects which the two boys had started following were Practical Combat, which allowed them access to the training grounds; the next level of Flight Practice, which would allow them to fly in actual space crafts soon, and the next level of Astronomy, a subject during which they would get to study the night sky with telescopes and engage in discussions about space and constellations and do new discoveries. They were getting very close to where they wanted to be. Hunk and Pidge were both following the next level of Space Engineering, while Pidge also continued with Space Science, Space Physics and Space Communication. Hunk, meanwhile, had continued with Space Biology and International Space Relations.

They were also getting a little closer to the other people in their dorm hall (the ones with whom they shared their bathroom). Pidge had hit it off with Nadia Rizavi, while Lance got on well with Ryan Kinkade. Keith wasn’t really _friends_ with James, but conversed with him regularly. They hadn’t gotten to know their fourth friend, Ina Leifsdottir, that much yet, but since she was often present, Keith, Lance, Hunk and Pidge got to befriend her too.

Lance and Keith had both started to develop a fondness for Practical Combat. Their teacher was immensely muscular and knew _a lot_ about fighting. Things such as anti-gravity techniques were also discussed. The training room had the option to decrease gravity, so that they could practise fighting while not standing steadily on the ground, which was not only incredibly interesting, but also super fun. During free hours, one could reserve one of the training rooms for themselves to practise, which both Keith and Lance had started doing regularly.

Like this, the third and fourth year passed in a blur of awesomeness. Lance was still dating Jenny, and was still crushing on Shiro. They had stopped their additional lessons, however, since Lance was now steadily improving on his own. Lance had replaced those lessons with Practical Combat training in one of the reservable rooms. He only saw Shiro during classes and in the hallway, but Keith sometimes saw him staring, which made his chest feel a little weird. Kind of as if he wanted Lance to stare at him instead.

Although Lance was with Jenny a lot, he was still often by Keith’s side, as well.

Mid-July, at the end of their fourth year, Nadia came with a proposal.

“Hey guys,” she said as she flopped down on the bench in the cafeteria. Lately, they’d been sitting together with breakfast and dinner a lot. “How about a game of Picolo, tomorrow night after our last class?”

“Picolo?” almost everyone repeated.

“Yeah,” Nadia said. She smirked. “It’s a drinking game.”

“Woah, a _drinking game_?!” Lance said enthusiastically. “I’m in!”

The drinking of alcohol was another aspect about the Garrison that was different from the rest of America. The legal drinking age was 16, so everyone of their friend group was already allowed. However, only people of 18+ were allowed to buy as many bottles as they wanted, while those under 18 could only buy one bottle of anything (wine, beer, or something less strong) per person. Everyone who bought alcohol was scrutinised, of course. The Garrison was responsible if any accidents happened, so everyone was requested to drink responsibly.

“To celebrate us effortlessly passing our fourth year,” Nadia said triumphantly.

“Sounds pretty cool,” Pidge said. “I’m in too.”

One by one people hopped onto the Picolo train, and the next evening they were gathered in one of the hang-out rooms of their hallway. The hang-out rooms could also be reserved, which is what they had done now. No one would disturb them.

“Alright,” Nadia began. “The game works as follows: I have an app, here on my phone, and I sign up all of your names. The game will give us questions and assignments, and per question is stated who needs to take how many sips of their drinks if the answer is given or the assignment successfully cleared or not. Does everyone understand?”

Everyone nodded in unison.

“Alright. I’ll go around the circle.” She looked to her right. “First I add Pidge. Then Hunk. Jenny. Lance. Keith. James, Ina, Ryan, and me. You all have to remember the one and only important rule: _The Game Is Law_. Good, everyone ready to get started?”

Everyone cheered with their bottles in the air. Pidge had received an extra stash from her brother Matt, so they were good for an entire night. The stash was set between Keith and James, so that the two were more or less sitting across from each other instead of next to each other.

Nadia tapped her phone. “First question: which is better, Star Trek or Star Wars? All vote, all losers drink three times.” Nadia explained that everyone who voted for Star Trek should raise their hand, and everyone for Star Wars should point downwards. The votes for Star Wars won, so everyone voting for Star Trek took three sips. Nadia tapped her phone again. “Drink four times if you’ve ever flirted with the partner of a friend.”

James brought his bottle to his mouth, so did Jenny, and, to Keith’s surprise, so did Lance. When Keith looked at him questioningly, Lance leaned over and whispered, “I’d be lying if I said I’ve never low-key flirted with Shiro, and I think I could consider Adam a friend.”

Keith snorted and shook his head in disbelief. “You’re such an idiot sometimes.”

“Oh, another rule,” Nadia said. “If someone is surprised by your answer, they can say ‘I drink to your story’. They take a sip and you will have to tell your story (or drink as well when you refuse).”

“Oh,” Lance reacted in shock.

“Let’s not drink to each other’s stories now, but now that everyone knows, we can add the rule,” Nadia said. Lance sighed with relief, and Keith grinned deviously.

Next everyone had to play rock, paper, scissors with the two people next to them. Everyone who lost had to take two sips.

The game made Keith tipsy pretty quickly. Suddenly everyone was way funnier; he himself felt much more courageous, as if he could finally say everything that was on his mind and not get into trouble; and everyone had become a little prettier. Especially Lance, for some reason. At some point Keith found himself just… kind of staring. At his soft brown hair, the warm colour of his skin, those permanently shimmering eyes… and especially his lips. Why did they look so soft tonight?

“I wonder what it’s like to kiss you?” he blurted out. In any other situation he would’ve _fought_ himself to make sure he wouldn’t say it out loud. But tonight it was fine to say it. It wouldn’t get him into trouble tonight. Lance’s unfazed reaction and the smirk-like smile on his face when he heard the question confirmed that Keith didn’t have much to worry about.

“Wanna try?” Jenny said with sparkling eyes.

The words of Lance’s girlfriend changed the loose atmosphere between them completely. Maybe Keith wouldn’t get into trouble for asking the question – but something way different might happen to him instead.

Lance responded visibly to Jenny’s words. He quickly looked at Keith, not saying anything. His face looked… not-unpleasantly shocked, maybe?

Keith blinked, sitting a little more upright, looking from Jenny to Lance and back. “Would it be okay?”

“Of course! Well it’s all up to Lance, I mean, I don’t mind.” She gestured between the two. “Go on?”

Lance and Keith looked at each other. “I’m–” Keith began, “...can I?”

Lance swallowed, but came the slightest bit closer and nodded.

His heartbeat speeding up big time, Keith leaned in the tiniest bit, and then they quickly pecked each other on the lips.

There were a few seconds of silence, in which they gazed in each other’s eyes not entirely sure what to say, until Jenny giggled and said, “Well, was it nice?”

Keith jerked up from his in-Lance’s-eyes-looking trance and he swiftly glanced at her. Then his eyes returned to Lance, who was waiting for his response with a shy expression and a slight blush on his cheeks.

“I-it was,” Keith stammered.

“And for you, Lance?” Jenny teased, hitting him twice in the side with her elbow.

“Ah – yes, for me too,” Lance quickly responded. He looked at Keith, and when he saw those insecure purple eyes, he couldn’t help but smile softly. Keith relaxed visibly because of it, and smiled back.

Meanwhile the game of Picolo was still going strong with the other partygoers.

“James, take off your pants and put them on your head, or take four sips.”

“Off those pants and on your head!” Pidge immediately started chanting. Soon Hunk and Nadia joined in, and Lance, Keith and Jenny, who got distracted, started singing as well.

“Alright, alright, I get it,” James said. He stood up and started fumbling with his belt. “You are now about to see the best legs of the Galaxy Garrison, so enjoy.”

“Pfff yeah right,” Lance scoffed, “everyone knows _I_ have the best legs here.”

“Then you take off those pants, loverboy,” James said, pulling the belt from his jeans.

“Nah, I’m good. I’m saving it for those who truly _deserve_ to see my legs.”

Keith, who had seen Lance’s legs many times already purely because they had known each other for a long time and because they slept in the same room, started blushing involuntarily.

The game continued, but now with James wearing his pants on top of his head. Ina, who was sitting next to him, started giggling uncontrollably every time she looked at it. James grinned each time her bubbly laugh reached his ears.

“Ryan, point to the person you think is gonna get laid tonight – they may give out two sips,” Nadia read from her phone.

Without saying a word, Ryan pointed at Lance.

“Heh, you can count on that,” Jenny winked at Ryan.

Keith felt a strange sting in his heart at those words. For some reason it had always been painful to not hear Lance return to his room in the late evening. He had become pretty skilled at thinking up other reasons why, and convincing himself that those were true. But hearing now that it was actually what he didn’t want to know it was, somehow made him feel a little sick.

“One for you, Ryan,” Lance said, raising his glass at him. “And…” he turned his head and leaned into Keith, “one for you.”

Keith sighed, but took a sip like a good boy.

“Hunk, massage Pidge until we say you can stop,” Nadia read the next assignment.

“Yes!” Pidge exclaimed.

“Why are you happy? I suck at giving massages.”

“I’m just glad I get to sit back while you attempt to make me feel good,” Pidge said with a devious smile.

“You’re so much meaner than you look,” Hunk said with a grimace, as he positioned himself behind Pidge.

“It’s the size,” Lance said. “The tinier, the meaner.”

“I can confirm that,” Pidge replied.

“I mean, Ryan is the biggest and he’s clearly the kindest,” Nadia said.

“No, that’s Hunk,” Keith said without thinking.

“Aww, thank you Keith!” Hunk said, happily pinching Pidge’s shoulders.

“Ow! Hunk!”

“I told you that I suck!”

“It’s karma, Pidge,” Jenny said.

Pidge glared at her. She didn’t really make it a secret that she didn’t much like Jenny. Not that Jenny cared, though.

“Alright, next one,” Nadia said. “Everyone in this room who have ever kissed each other, kiss again.”

Keith stiffened.

“Alrighty Lance, here we go!” Jenny said enthusiastically, and she pulled him closer in a strong kiss.

“Hey, that means we should kiss too,” James said to Jenny as she pulled back. “We kissed before you got together with Lance.”

“Oh shit, that’s right! Be right back Lance.” And as Jenny crept over to the other side of the circle, Lance and Keith glanced at each other.

“That probably means we should, too,” Lance said slowly.

“Oh yes you do!” Pidge yelled, I saw you two a few minutes ago!”

“Wait, Lance and Keith kissed?” Hunk said, complete surprise on his face.

“They did,” Pidge said, adjusting her glasses like an intense anime character. “It looked very pure.”

“I want to see that,” Hunk said, forgetting that he was supposed to massage Pidge.

Jenny had kissed James again and turned around to the two. Keith noticed that the expression on her face was a little weird, but she quickly erased it with a little shake of her head and waved to them. “Yeah, do it! The game is law.”

Keith unconsciously licked over his lips, new excitement bubbling in his belly. Was he already going to kiss Lance so quickly after the first time??

He felt a hand on his arm. It was Lance, looking at him with a half-shy, half-determined face. Again, a small blush adorned his cheekbones. “Ready?” he asked.

Oh shit, so they were really going to kiss again. Okay. Preparation. Not that he knew what that should be. He was panicking a tiny bit, but in a good way. Somehow he was extremely excited to feel those lips on his again.

Lance leaned closer and gazed meaningfully into Keith’s eyes. “I won’t do it without your permission.”

Keith had to watch his breath – it was about to quicken into a noticeable pace. After contemplating his entire life, he nodded.

Lance bridged the few centimetres between them, and pressed his lips on Keith’s. Somehow it felt like this one took much longer than the first kiss. Keith lingered in the feeling of Lance’s soft lips on his, wishing they would stay there for the next five hours. His eyes were closed, his hand eager to place itself over Lance’s, which was still holding onto his arm. It was wonderful.

Too quickly, Lance leaned back again, detaching their lips with a soft sound. He looked into Keith’s eyes for about one second, until he quickly looked aside, to the group.

Everyone was staring at them, with extremely excited expressions. Except perhaps for Jenny, who looked the slightest bit conflicted. She crawled back to Lance, nuzzled herself against his side and took his hand.

“That was adorable,” Nadia suddenly broke the silence.

“Absolutely the cutest,” Pidge said.

“Respect, man,” Hunk said, eyes wide and hands unmoving on Pidge’s shoulders.

“That looked pretty good,” Ryan added.

“Guys, stop,” Lance said, the blush slowly creeping over the rest of his face.

Nadia tapped her phone, onto the next question.

“Alright. Ryan, show one of your private parts or drink five times.”

All eyes flew to Ryan.

“Damn, that’s a good one,” James said. 

“What counts as ‘private parts’?” Ina asked.

“His dick, of course,” Jenny said.

“I think something like his chest also counts as a private part…” Hunk said, repeatedly pressing the tips of his index fingers together.

Keith heard a soft mumble on his left. “Are you okay, by the way?” Lance asked Jenny.

Jenny looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Let me know if you don’t like it, alright?” Lance muttered.

“Sure thing!”

“Chest is fine by me,” Pidge shrugged. “I’m not that eager to see his dick anyway.”

“So, chest?” Ryan said. When the rest nodded, he pulled up his shirt, exposing some well-formed abs.

James whistled.

“That’s exactly how I feel too,” Nadia said.

“Thanks.” Ryan pulled his shirt down.

Nadia took her phone again and tapped it. “Hunk, you may now stop massaging Pidge.”

“Not that he was doing so for the past few minutes,” Pidge grumbled.

“Sorry,” Hunk said as he shuffled back to his spot next to her. “Everything was a little too distracting.”

“What’s the next one, Nadia?” Ina asked.

“This one’s for you. Ina, pretend that you’re shooting imaginary pigeons for fifteen seconds. Drink three times at refusal.”

“Imaginary pigeons?” Ina repeated. Then she folded her hands together, raised them to the sky and went, “Pew, pew, pew!” for fifteen seconds.

“Actually it’s more like, ‘pachew, pachew, pachew’,” Pidge said, forming an imaginary gun with her hands and shooting at nothing.

“Nah, it’s more like ‘POW, POW, POW’,” Hunk disagreed, making big, canon-like moves with his arms.

“I quite like Ina’s choice,” Keith shrugged.

“I think it should be more like ‘pow, pow, pow’ to be honest, but definitely a good start,” Lance said.

“On to the next question,” Nadia said and she tapped the screen. Her eyes widened in excitement. “Oh. This is good.” She cleared her throat. “Pidge, point at two people who should kiss.”

Pidge jerked up with a grin on her face. “My time as god as come.” She peered through the circle, looking absolutely devious and smug as she did so. When her eyes landed on Keith, he got a feeling.

“Keith and Lance,” Pidge pointed. “But not such a cute little kiss like just now. Make it a French one.”

Keith’s eyes widened. Oh help. He had never done that before.

On his left, Lance and Jenny were both silent. Lance was staring at Keith. The problem was that he, personally, wouldn’t mind kissing Keith with tongue _at all_. The problem was…

“It’s OK, Lance,” Jenny said.

“It is?” Lance asked incredulously, turning his head to look at her.

She shrugged. “Yeah. The game is law, remember?” Then she brought her face close to his ear and whispered, “Besides, I know you want to.”

Lance flushed red. “Don’t tell Keith,” he whispered back.

Jenny nodded with a smug expression. “Go. Be gay.”

Lance snorted, but he turned to Keith, who was biting his lip anxiously.

“You okay with it, Keith?” Lance asked. “If you don’t want it we won’t do it.”

“You need to drink five times if you don’t do it, though,” Nadia said, reading the assignment.

“I-it’s fine,” Keith stammered.

“Really?” Lance asked to be sure.

“Yes, yes. I mean – I’ve never done it before so I probably suck, but…”

“That’s no problem for me,” Lance said. “Come a little closer.”

Keith was truly feeling many things right now. His heart was hammering against his chest, and the nerves pooled in his stomach. But again he had that strange excitement deep down. He hadn’t lied when he said that it was fine.

He shuffled a little bit closer, while Lance positioned himself in front of Keith. He himself looked quite nervous.

With trembling hands he took Keith’s face. Keith actually combusted.

“Ready?” Lance asked softly, leaning in.

Keith swallowed. “No, but go on.”

Lance chuckled. “Here we go.”

He crossed the distance, and kissed Keith for the third time that night. Since Keith hardly knew what the next step was, he waited for Lance to move. That didn’t take long. After only a few seconds, Lance gently pushed Keith’s lips apart with his own, and slipped his tongue inside. Keith accepted him, and pushed back with his own when he felt their tongues connect. Many intense seconds followed, in which Lance’s tongue slid through, out, and back into Keith’s mouth.

It felt absolutely amazing.

As Keith’s mind slowly descended into a wonderful trance in which only Lance and his body existed, he felt himself engaging more actively in their kissing, moving his lips and tongue in return to respond to Lance. At some point he felt his hands clasp themselves in Lance’s shirt, to keep him close. He hardly cared when Lance pushed forward slightly, and pressed Keith against the floor, always keeping their mouths connected.

Keith’s cheeks were on fire. No. Scratch that. His entire _body_ was on fire. And Lance kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him, not showing any signs of stopping soon.

When Keith noticed that both their breathing became heated and erratic, a warning bell went off in his mind. It would be bad if they kept going like this, since it seemed that other body parts than just their mouths and hands were about to join in on their intimacy.

Lance noticed it too, and slowed down sharply with the kissing. Their scene ended with some soft smooches, and at last Lance disconnected their mouths.

Keith finally opened his eyes, breathing surprisingly heavily, and saw Lance hanging above him in the same state. Lance’s pupils were rather dilated and his cheeks were extremely red. Keith saw his adam’s apple move as he swallowed thickly.

Lance cleared his throat, got up, and pulled Keith along by his hands.

Only then, they dared looking at the rest.

Hunk was hiding behind Pidge, peeking over her shoulder as if he had witnessed something forbidden. Pidge was staring wide-eyed, as if she had expected anything besides what had happened. Nadia was smirking. Just smirking. James was actually full-on blushing. Almost looking as if he wouldn’t have minded joining in himself. Ryan and Ina were both rather expressionless, as if this was something they either saw every day, or didn’t really care about.

Jenny was looking shocked, but reserved at the same time. Her expression was awfully hard to read, a mix between disbelief and pain, and yet as if she didn’t want anyone to know what she felt. Her own permission had put her in a position where she didn’t want to be.

When Lance looked at her, she took a deep breath, and without emotion her face said, “Well, at least you won’t have to drink.” She managed a cocky smile. “That looked kinda hot.”

“Dudes, that was so wild,” James said, in a voice that didn’t sound like his. He placed his hands over his eyes. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“Me neither,” Pidge said, still staring at the boys. “You were really enjoying that, huh.”

“Don’t say it out loud, Pidge,” Lance hissed with his jaws clenched together.

“What? It’s the truth,” she said, quirking an eyebrow.

“S-should we continue the game?” Hunk stammered, unsure how to behave as he shyly crept from behind Pidge’s back.

Nadia, who hadn’t stopped smirking after Lance and Keith had seen her doing so, took her phone again, said “sure,” and with that same expression tapped the screen. “If you’ve taken a shit today, drink three times.”

Almost everyone brought their glass to their mouth.

For the rest of the night Keith and Lance were sitting only centimetres apart from each other. They could feel a strange heat radiate from each other’s bodies, as if invisible sparks were jumping between them, making them both highly and almost unwantedly aware of the other.

There was one last moment in which their resolve was challenged.

“Drink if you would kiss the person next to you.”

Everyone tensed up. Nobody was surprised when Jenny brought her bottle to her mouth, and the same counted when Lance did so. Keith looked at him as he drunk, secretly wishing he did it because of him. Lance noticed Keith’s eyes on him, glanced at him from the corner of his eye, and whispered so softly that only Keith heard him, “Also for you.”

Keith had to draw in a sharp breath, because his heart was beating faster again. With a neck and face warm from excitement, he boldly brought his bottle to his mouth and took a sip.

The smile on Lance’s face was incredible. “Is it safe to assume you’re not drinking because of the person on your right?” he asked.

Keith glanced shortly at James and muttered, “Very safe.”

“Cool,” Lance grinned. “Thanks for the compliment.”

Keith chuckled softly. “Thank you too.”

Then they looked at the circle to see who else would drink. Hunk didn’t drink, neither did Pidge. They looked at each other, shrugged at the same time and said, “Sorry.”

Nadia took a sip, looked at Ryan and said, “That one was for you.”

“Thanks,” Ryan said, and took a sip himself.

Ina didn’t drink, but everyone was surprised when James did.

“Woah, you’d kiss Ina?!” Nadia said in shock.

“Or Keith,” Ryan said bluntly.

“I wouldn’t kiss Keith!” James yelled without thinking.

Keith quirked an eyebrow. “Thanks.”

“Yeah man, that’s harsh,” Lance said with a frown. Since their past, he had always been rather uptight about James talking to or about Keith.

“W-wait, I’m sorry! I don’t mean it like that!” James looked as if he’d talked himself into trouble. He was blushing fiercely and hid his face in his hand. “Urgh, I just mean…”

“It’s okay to admit you’d kiss Ina,” Nadia said. “Come on? Otherwise I’ll drink to your answer.”

James peeked at Ina for a sec, and then closed his eyes with a sigh. “ _Yes_ , I’d kiss Ina. Happy now?”

“Quite,” Nadia grinned. “What do you think, Ina?”

Ina was looking at James. “Thank you,” was the only thing she said.

“You’re welcome,” James grumbled, and then took another gulp for good measure.

Everyone felt satisfied with the results of this question, as was visible on their faces when Nadia tapped her device.

Keith wondered how it would be like between him and Lance from now on. He sure as hell wouldn’t ever look the same at his best friend. Perhaps if the kiss hadn’t been so good, and they hadn’t both openly admitted they’d do it again afterward, he would be able to ignore it, but damn, if it wasn’t the best thing he had felt in years.

~

The few weeks after the Picolo game, weeks in which they and a bunch of their teachers decided to stay at the Garrison during summer because there were extra classes available in their curriculum, were a little awkward, but not in an annoying way. Keith noticed that he was a little more reserved around Lance, a little more careful and a little shyer, and so was Lance. One of the most significant changes was that now and then they just smiled at each other in silence for a few seconds, until one of the two became embarrassed and looked away. Keith really liked it. Every time it happened, he felt like there was a huge flower blooming in his chest, making his heartbeat speed up excitedly.

Another noticeable change was that Lance didn’t fangirl about Shiro anymore. Keith also never caught him staring again.

And it was true. Lance noticed how slowly but steadily his feelings for Shiro decreased. He had always been highly aware of himself whenever Shiro was in the room, but lately it hadn’t been so bad. Instead, he’d gotten really aware of Keith’s presence. He had always been aware, but now it was even worse than usual. During dates with Jenny, he caught himself accidentally fantasising about how fun it would be to do that with Keith sometime, just the two of them drinking together, in such a pleasantly tense atmosphere… Although he was still showering Jenny with affection, he was clearly much more absent-minded than before. He just couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss.

He was so frequently absent-minded that Jenny detected it, and, protecting her own feelings of love for Lance, decided to talk to him about it. She called him out of his room one day, when they had been together for about a year and nine months, and confessed.

“I know I said I was okay with it, but I don’t think I can do it anymore…” she explained, looking at her hands. “I’m sorry Lance. I know you like multiple people besides me. I guess I just… want to be loved as the only one by someone.”

“O-oh…” Lance said, rubbing the back of his head. He felt horribly guilty that he couldn’t deny her words. And that it had become so obvious that she had noticed it, and that he had hurt her feelings. “I understand. I’m really sorry.”

Jenny shook her head. “It’s okay. I know you’re not a bad person. The person who will receive all your love is going to be very lucky.”

Lance smiled sadly. “I hope so. Same to you.”

Jenny smiled as well. “Thank you for all these months. I had a lovely time.” She came to stand on tiptoes and kissed Lance on the cheek. He felt like crying. “Well, see you later then.”

“Yeah… See you.”

And she walked back to her dorm.

~

The two doors opened with a _zweep_ sound, and Lance entered their bedroom with hanging shoulders.

“Hey man. It’s over with Jenny.”

Keith actually choked on his juice this time. “ _What_?”

Lance sighed. “You heard what I said.”

As he sat down on the bed, next to Keith, the latter looked at him concerned. “Is it… because of…?” Keith pointed with his thumb behind his back, as if he was referring to the past.

“Maybe it’s part of it. I mean she kept a strong face but we both know she disliked what she saw. She says she can’t handle me liking other people besides her.” He sighed dejectedly.

“L-like Shiro?”

Lance looked at him, with an unreadable emotion on his face. Then he chuckled. “Yeah, for instance.”

Keith swallowed thickly. He wanted to hit himself in the face for not being brave enough to ask if Lance meant _him_ , because now he was only feeling disappointed with the answer. Perhaps, however, if Keith had asked whether Lance liked him and the answer was negative, he would’ve felt even worse. Which was probably why he had asked a different question. Or maybe he was just scared.

He tried to pull himself together. This wasn’t about him right now. Lance was feeling sad and had come to Keith for comfort, so he was going to deliver.

“Do you want a hug?”

Lance looked up, surprised. Keith had never asked to hug, let alone initiated it himself. It was just not _him_ to do it. But Lance really appreciated it.

“Yes.”

Keith shuffled closer a bit and opened his arms, in which Lance threw himself as he wrapped his own arms around Keith in return.

They sat like that for minutes on end, just holding each other.

“Thank you, Keith,” Lance said eventually.

“My pleasure,” Keith replied in a murmur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then they were both single again... :)
> 
> Thank you for reading!! Let me know if you liked it!


	3. Finally Figuring It Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get ready for da smexy times *eye emoji*

Things changed between them after Lance’s break-up with Jenny. It wasn’t a change that was easy to detect, not for themselves and not for others, but after a few weeks it suddenly dawned on Keith.

Wasn’t it even a little weird that it had become a habit to throw arms around each other’s shoulders more than once a day? To touch hands and linger a little when passing each other their stuff? To laugh when both noticed how they lingered? Wasn’t it weird that now and then they found themselves sneaking off together, like when they were younger, but instead of stealing food they would just sit? Talking about everything and nothing, with their knees touching and not saying a word about it? That they secretly wanted to have a little more physical contact, but were too shy to ask? That they started feeling shy around each other in the first place, while they had been sharing everything so openly before?

Was it perhaps an effect of the kiss they shared before summer, or was it something else?

And even more striking, and a little worrisome, Keith thought, was that he started to feel things inside, physically, when he and Lance were alone or unnecessarily touching. He had no idea what to do with those feelings, and could hardly explain what they meant.

~

As Keith passed the training room, on a Wednesday evening in December, a series of soft grunts reached his ears. He halted, took a few steps backwards, and gazed through the open door.

There was Lance, fighting, with a sword, beating a whole army of flying drones with skilful sweeps and cuts. He had taken off his shirt, which was lying somewhere crumbled on the floor, exposing his well-formed torso. Keith’s eyes grew as he saw it. Arm and chest muscles firm and tight tensed and relaxed, glistening with sweat, all making sure that Lance was acing the current difficulty level.

Keith had to swallow.

As Lance’s sword cut through the last-flying drone, a female voice resounded through the room: “Level 18, completed.”

At this point Keith entered, leaning against the doorframe and crossing his arms as Lance picked up his towel from the floor and wiped his head.

“When did you get so ripped?” Keith asked with a smirk.

Lance turned around to face him, and he grinned. He moved closer to Keith, leaning in as he was only one metre away. “What, does it turn you on?”

“How could it?” Keith teased back.

“I know that I’m irresistible,” Lance said, flexing his arm muscles. Afterwards, his devious smile disappeared and he snickered. “No, in all seriousness, I’ve been training somewhat for the past few weeks. Helps keeping my mind of… things.” He wiped his chest as he walked back to his shirt and picked it off the floor. “Besides, I’m still not as ripped as you are.”

“How do you know how ripped I am?”

“I’ve been watching you train, like you’re doing now to me.”

“Oh really?”

“Really. But I always escaped before you noticed.”

“Why?”

“Because I was embarrassed.”

Keith chuckled as he took one more step into the room. “Then, should we train together someday? Since I also have a sword.”

Lance’s eyes widened, which made him look as if he had never seen this proposition coming. He contemplated the idea for a few seconds, and then he nodded. “That’d be cool! I’ve always wanted to fight a human.”

“Cool,” Keith said. “How about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow’s fine, I think. After Iverson’s test?”

“Sure.”

“Great.” Lance walked back to Keith and passed him. “Then I’m going to take a shower. See ya later!”

And he disappeared through the hallway.

Keith was still feeling a little warm from their conversation just now, but he was also looking forward to tomorrow. He hoped he was gonna be able to keep his stupid blush in check.

~

The swords were a new addition to Practical Combat. At the beginning of their fifth year, the two were allowed to choose their personal weapon from the extensive collection at the Garrison.

Even though the boys had chosen apart from each other, they had both taken a sword. They had probably both had the “space pirate” fantasy in their minds when they picked it.

And thus they entered their reserved training room the next day, and closed the door so that no one would come look.

The tension was already incredible. Keith tried to calm himself down by reminding himself that they were literally with the two of them _every night_ in their dorm room, but it didn’t really work. It didn’t help either when Lance stripped himself to his training clothes, which were… kind of tight.

Keith’s clothes were similar, and he wondered if they made concentrating harder for Lance as well.

Which they did.

They took their starting positions on the opposite sides of the room, raising their swords in front of them.

“Ready?” Lance said with a grin.

“Ready,” Keith replied, and without much further ado the two dashed forward.

For minutes, the sound of sword clashing against sword filled the room. Since they had been following the same classes from the start, they were on pretty much the same level, so hitting each other was not the easiest. They worked up an immense sweat, and were panting after a few minutes.

Eventually, however, Keith managed to sweep his leg over the floor, hitting Lance’s ankle in the process. Lance toppled over, but immediately raised his sword in a defensive move when Keith dove on top of him. The blades of their swords were pressed firmly together, while their faces were threateningly close.

“Had enough?” Keith panted on top of Lance.

“Absolutely not,” Lance hissed back. “I won’t let you win.” He pushed back with a scream, and Keith was thrown off of him. Lance attacked at soon as he was back up, but Keith blocked him and attacked in return.

They were going at it for about an hour, until the zoomer went off, telling them their time was up.

“Damn,” Lance groaned, as he took his towel off the floor and wiped his forehead and neck. “That was awesome.”

“You’re really strong,” Keith said, taking his own. “We should do this more often.”

Lance stared at Keith while the latter rubbed the towel over his head, and slid it over his neck downwards. Then he took the hem of his shirt in both hands and pulled it over his head, so that he could wipe his chest.

Lance froze. It took him a few seconds before he realised Keith could catch him staring anytime, so he cleared his throat and looked away.

“You really have gotten grizzled,” he mumbled as he picked up his water bottle.

“Oh?” Keith said, holding his shirt in his hands. The look on his face said that he hadn’t noticed so himself, and it was adorable. “Thanks. I think.”

“Yeah…” Lance could feel the blush on his cheeks. Damn. He had to get out of here. “Alright! I’m gonna hit the showers. You?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll, I’ll stretch some more and then go.”

Lance nodded and he walked to the door. On his way he passed Keith, and quickly stole another glance at his torso.

As soon as he was out of Keith’s sight, he ran.

Secretly, Keith was glad Lance had left first. He seriously felt like he needed to cool his head before looking upon him again. He had caught sight of Lance’s flushed face, and damn, if it wasn’t a sight to behold.

Afterwards, the two trained a few more times together. They actually both didn’t want to, because repeatedly seeing the other dripping with sweat and panting was… not good for their hearts. But since they didn’t want the other to suspect anything, they kept agreeing to the next training session.

Lance broke first, in the sense of admitting to himself that he couldn’t do this for much longer. He came up with an excuse to stop.

“This has been incredibly educational and everything,” he said in a light tone. “And we should absolutely do this again, but I kinda was trying to beat the goal of clearing level 20 by myself. I’m really close now; would be OK to put our sessions on hold for a bit?”

Keith felt like a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders. He had to try not to nod too enthusiastically. “Oh, yeah, no, that sounds fine. Okay. Yes. Good luck beating level 20! Maybe I’ll train in another room as well.”

“Ah, yeah, good idea,” Lance replied with an awkward smile. He wanted to hit himself in the face for not being physically stronger, but it was as it was. For now, he should seriously stop sword fighting with Keith.

“Alright, then I’m gonna go,” Keith said, pointing with his thumb to the door. “Gonna take a shower and all.”

“Yes, good idea! Talk to ya later!”

After Keith had left the room, Lance flopped onto the floor and sighed the deepest sigh he had sighed in days.

They didn’t challenge each other much after that. Indeed, they sort of avoided each other a little. With these sword fights, their physical feelings had reached their highest points and would’ve burst if they hadn’t stopped. Since they were both feeling a little awkward and a little guilty for having developed these feelings towards each other, it was better for now to look each other in the eyes a little less. Naturally, since they could hardly do without the other, this avoiding was kept to a minimum and they were still together a lot. What they most actively avoided, however, was seeing the other either sweating, or topless. Because that was when things were hardest.

On a Wednesday night in early January, Keith was helping Hunk with an engineering project, even though he didn’t know that much about engineering himself. Pidge was working on her own project and Hunk really wanted to hang out with Keith again, so he’d agreed to meet up. After they were finished, Keith’s hands, arms and face were smudged with rust and oil.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Hunk chuckled, as he cleaned his hands with a cloth. “Maybe you’d better take a shower.”

Keith contemplated that suggestion for a second, and then checked the time on his watch. 8.27 p.m. That meant Lance was training, as he always did on Wednesday nights from 8 until 9. Good. Then he would be able to avoid Lance seeing him half naked.

“Thanks for helping me out man, I’ll treat you to something later,” Hunk said. He rolled to his desk on his desk chair and grabbed something from the tabletop. “Have this for now.” And he threw Keith a candy bar.

“Thanks,” Keith smiled, and he left the room. He walked back to his own, where Lance was indeed not present, exchanged the candy bar for a towel and a toothbrush and headed for the showers. When he entered the large bathroom, he already heard someone showering in one of the cabins. It was a habit of the eight sharers not to inquire who the other person was, for privacy’s sake. Naturally, they tried to avoid seeing each other coming in or out of the shower as well. So shortly after Keith had turned the shower on, the one in the cabin two cabins away from his was turned off. He heard someone wiping themselves and then step into the bathroom. After a bit of rustling, the person left. Shortly afterwards Keith decided he was done as well. He got out and walked to the mirror.

~

Lance was sitting on his bed, more or less ready to go to sleep, with a space magazine in his hands. He was only wearing his boxers, as the room was pretty warm today. The towel from the shower was still around his neck, and he could feel small drops of water drip from his hair still, every few seconds.

The door opened with a _zweep_ , and his head jerked up.

It was Keith (duh, no one else could come inside their room without knocking except for them, as their IDs were connected to the door’s control panel). He was wearing a towel over his head, rubbing it with it with one hand, and just like Lance, he was only wearing boxers.

He had his eyes closed as he took a step inside.

“Welcome back,” Lance said.

The hand on Keith’s towel froze and his eyes blinked open. Upon seeing Lance, he blushed.

“I – I thought you were still…” he began, pointing with his thumb behind him, and then pointing with the index finger of the other hand to the side, and then gesturing with both of them to the door, not sure how he wanted to finish the sentence.

“I was training but, decided to stop a little earlier today,” Lance explained awkwardly.

Keith nodded once in understanding. “I see.”

When he kept standing there, Lance unconsciously let his eyes wander from Keith’s face to his torso – such a good, muscular torso that he’d absolutely love to touch one day – roaming over it before he glanced further down, to the bulge in Keith’s boxers.

Then he tore his eyes away, directing them back to his magazine. He shouldn’t do this. Not to Keith. Fuck.

He pinched his magazine tight to distract his mind. “Then – I’m off to bed.”

“Alright,” Keith said softly.

Lance was too embarrassed to check whether Keith had noticed that he’d been checking him out. He quickly climbed over his bed, placed the magazine on the shelf above his head and dove under the sheets. He heard Keith place his toothbrush in the cup above his sink and get into bed himself.

“Good night,” Lance said hesitantly.

“Good night,” Keith replied.

Lance squeezed his eyes shut, focussing on the raging hard-on in his boxers, trying with every fibre of his being to make it go soft. It was fine if it happened because of someone else, but _not_ Keith. Not his longest and most valuable childhood friend.

Little did he know that Keith was having the same problem only two metres away from him.

~

Luckily for both of them, they got gradually better at not-seeing-the-other-naked and not-bringing-up-their-sword-fight-sessions, so they slowly returned to how they had been before. Which meant: being close to each other 24/7, touching each other’s hands, arms and shoulders unnecessarily, and strolling off together to do nothing in particular. Ultimately, they both accepted they were acting romantically as fuck – but neither admitted it to the other, so as to avoid awkwardness. However, as the days passed, they were both ready to admit they would be fine with whatever romantic stuff were to happen between them. They would gladly kiss, or cuddle, or go out for a drink together, but neither proposed it, since they were both way too shy.

So it remained all actions and no words. Just those little touches, secret meetings, secret glances and silent yearnings.

Eventually, Lance was brave enough to take the next step. While he had his arms around Keith in class, which happened daily these days, and Keith had said something cute and funny, Lance kissed him on the cheek.

Keith laughed, but deep down he became a raging ball of confusion. He remembered how Lance had kissed his cheek when they were seven, after which he said that it was because they were family now. But if they were family, then they weren’t romantically connected at all? Did Lance mean _that_?

So while Keith’s heart was speeding up with worry, he raised his arms and clenched his hands around Lance’s wrists. Man, if Lance saw him as family, and Keith him as a romantic interest, that’d be quite the problem.

But Lance didn’t do it anymore after that, so Keith managed to forget about it. Keith allowed himself to linger in those romantic feelings, to revel in the warmth caused by one of Lance’s touches.

Slowly but steadily, he came to accept that he had fallen romantically in love with Lance. And for now, just being by his side as he was seemed pretty alright. Every little romantic thing he did these days, such as taking a hold of Lance’s hand randomly, were accepted, so he decided not to stop.

When Valentine’s Day arrived, they were both _dying_ to spend it together. But their friends, all not really in romantic bonds with anyone, insisted on having a Friends’ Day instead. Keith and Lance were forced to join them, and therefore they were surrounded by other people for the entirety of the day. Even worse, one by one everyone placed themselves between Keith and Lance, saying that they should pay some more attention to their other friends instead of to each other.

But Lance and Keith were literally _yearning_ to be together, so they were tensely waiting until this Friends’ Day was finally over.

And after dinner, that was the case. It was already dark outside when they all walked back to their dorms. When Keith and Lance arrived at theirs, Lance pushed Keith inside the room and whispered, “Don’t go to bed yet; wait here for me.”

Keith, blinking and suddenly intensely excited, watched Lance bolt away through the corridor and turn a corner.

It took him about two minutes, and then he returned. He had a wonderful grin on his face.

“Alright, let’s go.” He took Keith by the hand and pulled him through the hall.

“Where are we going?” Keith asked.

Lance looked over his shoulder. “Not telling. But it’s gonna be great, I can promise you that.”

Lance led Keith to a part of the floor where he had never been before. Eventually Lance stopped and pointed upwards.

Keith glanced up, and saw a ladder coming down from an open trapdoor.

“ _That’s_ where we’re going,” Lance grinned. “Come on, you go first.”

As Keith grabbed the first rung, Lance said, “We gotta be quick, patrol passes through here a few times per hour.”

Keith quickly worked himself up. Lance jumped onto the ladder too, and as soon as his toes disappeared through the ceiling, patrol appeared from behind the corner.

They climbed and climbed, as high as they could. Eventually Keith discovered an opening in the ceiling to where this ladder led, and he clambered through it.

He landed on the roof of the Garrison. Around him were the plains of Arizona visible, lit by the moon shining above their heads. When Lance flopped next to him, Keith gazed to the sky, where thousands of stars were twinkling.

“Man,” he said, as he remembered all the times he and Lance snuck out of the house as kids to go star-seeing. “You sure know your spots.”

“I was lucky I found it,” he heard Lance respond. “I’ve been looking for a place to watch the stars for a while, but there are sections where we’re not allowed to come at night. I actually think this is the only accessible way to the roof.”

“Only accessible way we’re not allowed to take,” Keith said.

“That’s right.”

What Keith couldn’t see, as he was staring at the stars with a heart full of warmth, was that Lance wasn’t looking at the stars at all, but at Keith.

Eventually Keith decided to stop looking, and started to say, “Thanks for showing me the…”

But then his eyes landed on Lance, and they were suddenly only centimetres apart. They stared at each other for a few seconds, both surprised by the sudden closeness, but not making any attempt to decrease it.

The light of the celestial bodies shone on Lance’s shining hair, on his eyelashes and his cheeks.

“I love how the stars reflect in your eyes,” Lance admitted softly.

“Yeah?” Keith asked. The atmosphere around them changed, from the exciting feeling of two boys breaking the rules, to two boys in love finally being alone. Being alone on the day of love, surrounded by stars, their noses only a few inches apart.

Keith’s heart sped up from the nerves, but they weren’t bad nerves. They were great, exciting nerves, that he didn’t mind having _at all_.

He especially didn’t object when he noticed how the distance between their faces decreased.

“Did you know that that’s the same thing I thought about you, the first time you showed me the stars?” he said softly, allowing himself to be pulled closer to Lance, as if they were connected by gravity.

“Yeah?” Lance asked softly in return. “Looks like this is mutual, then.”

Keith hummed, until their lips finally, _finally_ , touched again. They’d been starving for this, eager to do it again from the moment they’d done it for the first time. Lance pressed his mouth harder against Keith’s, as the latter trailed up his arms and wrapped them around Lance’s neck, one hand grasping in his hair.

Lance hummed softly against his lips, as if he said, “nice,” and placed one hand on Keith’s hip while he put his weight on his other hand, pulling him closer.

For some reason, Keith really wanted to talk about kissing Lance while kissing him, but that was of course impossible. He mainly just wanted to let him know how badly he had been wanting to do this again, so instead of saying it, he decided to show it with his body. He pressed himself so close to Lance that they were chest to chest, and Lance allowed Keith to push forward until his back was against the floor of the roof. His right hand trailed up, until it was between Keith’s shoulder blades, while he placed the other on Keith’s lower back.

The places where Lance was touching Keith were burning. As their lips moved more and more eagerly against each other, Keith wanted to feel him so much more. In between two hot and incredible kisses, Keith whispered against Lance’s lips, in an incredibly needy voice, “Lower.”

Lance replied by recapturing Keith’s lips, but did as he was told. His left hand on Keith’s lower back moved further down and took a hold of Keith’s ass. Keith hummed in approval, opening his mouth and probing with his tongue against Lance’s lips. Lance welcomed him right away, pinching Keith’s ass when their tongues connected.

They made out for a long time under the stars, but the February temperature crept through their jackets eventually, and prevented them from continuing. Eventually Keith pulled back slowly, and looked down into Lance’s eyes. Lance looked incredibly happy, and Keith was certain he himself hadn’t felt this wonderful in years. Lance took Keith’s face in his hands, and pulled his face down until their foreheads touched.

“I love you, Keith,” he said in a whisper.

“Yeah?” Keith asked, as huge metaphorical flowers bloomed inside his chest.

Lance hummed. “I probably have for a long time now.”

Keith could hardly contain his excitement. He wanted to cheer, but also hold Lance close and never let go.

“Even when you kissed my cheek?” he asked, wording his worries from a while back.

Lance blinked in confusion. “Well, naturally, yes.”

“But I thought you said a kiss on the cheek is for family…”

It took Lance a few seconds to understand what Keith was talking about, but once it finally dawned, he pushed himself up, setting Keith down on his lap.

“What,” he said, and Keith could hear the amused undertone in his voice, “you thought when I kissed you on your cheek a few weeks ago I meant it in a _familial_ way?”

Keith blushed a little. “But, that’s what you said when we were kids! ‘It’s because from now on you’re my family,’ right?”

Now Lance finally laughed out loud. “Keith, I was seven years old! How could I know I did that because I was falling in love with you? That I started seeing you as family was the only conclusion I could come up with at the time.”

Now it was Keith’s turn to blink in confusion. “What – so it was already romantic that far back?”

Lance placed his arms around Keith’s torso and pulled him closer. “I don’t know… maybe?” The colour of his cheeks turned a shade darker, and he turned his head to the side, as if he tried to avoid Keith’s gaze. As opposed to his shy behaviour, however, his voice was steady when he continued. “I just know that you’ve been on my mind from the day we met, and it took me too damn long to figure out what it meant.”

Keith’s voice was just a whisper. “Oh.”

Lance carefully glanced back up at him to gauge his reaction, but what he saw was the last thing he expected.

Keith was red from his collar bones to the roots of his hair. It was a beautiful shade, even though it was only barely visible in the starlight. His eyes were shimmering with emotion, and could probably tell Lance more about how Keith felt than Keith would be able to do with words. Keith’s entire past of loss, loneliness, hurt, newfound familial love and first friendships were visible in them, and now his newest experience was making his eyes glisten with tears: mutual love.

Keith’s hands were on Lance’s shoulders, and he pinched the jacket so hard that he took Lance’s shoulder muscles with it, which made Lance flinch a little. He bent forward and pressed his forehead against Lance’s.

“God,” he said, his voice filled with the same emotion visible in his eyes. “I love you so much, Lance. I think I always have.” It took him great effort to hold in a sob. “You’ve given me everything that I lost, and more.”

“Hey now,” Lance said, his own voice starting to clog with emotion, “Shiro and Adam deserve some of the credit.”

Keith let out a noise that sounded half like a chuckle and half like a sob. “You’re right, they do.”

“But I won’t complain if you’d tell me I improved your entire world,” Lance teased, turning his head so he could bury his face in Keith’s neck and nuzzle the skin there.

Keith put his arms around Lance and slowly looked up at the night sky. “You basically have.”

“Well, so you did mine,” Lance said against Keith’s skin. “My world would’ve been much less wonderful without you in it.”

Keith grinned sheepishly while Lance leaned back to look into his eyes again. “You’re welcome,” Keith said. Then his mouth closed into a half smile and he confessed, “I’m not sure how to behave in a relationship though; I’ve never had one.”

“You’re doing a great job so far.” Lance smiled wonderfully at Keith. “Don’t you worry. We’ll walk this road together, like we’ve always done.”

Keith sighed contently and hugged Lance close. “Yeah. We will.”

~

After a few more minutes of soft words and soft kisses, the two headed back to their dorm. They went slowly as to not get caught by patrols, peeking around corners and tip-toeing through the corridors. Never once they let go of each other’s hands.

Eventually they reached their room. It was more than extremely weird to now let go of each other and go to sleep in separate beds that were still so close in the same space. As soon as Keith let go of Lance’s warmth, he missed it so annoyingly much that he could hardly stand it. It was impossible to warm himself up under the thin sheets, and he really, _really_ just wanted to continue holding Lance in his arms. They lied like that in restless silence for about fifteen minutes, until Lance sighed so loud in their quiet room that it was as if a bomb exploded. Keith heard the rustling sound of Lance kicking the blanket off of him, followed by a loud, “Dammit. C’mere Keith!”

Keith’s heart pounded happily. “I thought you’d never ask.” And swift as the wind he jumped from under his own sheets and launched himself back into Lance’s embrace.

They slept until noon, and even then couldn’t let go of each other for about two hours.

~

That night, during another hang-out night with their dorm friends, (which was also being called “the Bathroom Bros” by several members, such as Pidge, Hunk, Nadia and James,) the two boys told them about their relationship.

The reactions were varying. Hunk was so happy that he began hugging everyone, Pidge just plainly said, “What, you weren’t together before?”, Nadia cheered and slapped them so hard on the back they could feel a bruise appear, and Keith caught James handing Ryan a ten dollar bill with a grim face, while the latter mumbled from the corner of his mouth, “Told you they were cute.” Ina just gave them a thumbs up and said, “Congrats.”

Keith suspected their friends could’ve seen it coming from the moment he and Lance had snogged each other for about five minutes in front of everyone, but he was happy that the announcement was received with so much positivity. It made him feel even more certain that loving Lance had never been an unwise decision.

~

And so the days of their relationship commenced. Even though the two had been acting extremely romantically before, now it was for the whole world to see that they were officially together. Glances and touches weren’t stolen in secrecy anymore, and subtle words of affection weren’t so subtle anymore. They were even more inseparable than before, and when they _weren’t_ together, it seemed as if both of them made it a sport to praise the other as much as verbally possible. One could say that they were disgustingly in love, and perhaps they were, but since practically everyone had experienced their development and hopeless pining first-hand, they all just seemed really happy that they were together at last. Even Jenny seemed content, and during a one-on-one conversation with Lance confessed that she knew Keith was going to be her successor. The love story of Lance and Keith had become something their entire year knew about, as something which everyone had been supporting from the sidelines for months.

Lance and Keith only slept in separate beds when they went to sleep at different times, otherwise they always slept in the same one. It seemed as if it had become almost impossible for them to be physically separate; not because they couldn’t behave normally without the other, but more that it was so standard now that both didn’t want it any other way.

And as they were practically on each other’s laps and in each other’s arms at every single possibility, the physical feelings they had buried within themselves slowly began to resurface.

On a certain day, about a few weeks after their relationship became official, they were relaxing on Lance’s bed. Lance was sitting on his pillow, leaning against the wall, with Keith between his legs leaning with his back against his chest. Lance was revelling in the feeling of Keith in his arms, as he was holding his boyfriend tightly around his waist, leaning his chin on his shoulder. Just holding Keith, bringing his breathing in sync with him and feeling the warmth of his back against his chest was enough for Lance to make this afternoon hundred percent perfect.

But Keith had been having some trouble concentrating on his book for the past few minutes. It was exactly that warmth of their touching back and chest which Lance found so comfortable, that made Keith restless. It was mainly because he could feel the complete broadness of it and the firm pecs against his shoulder blades. It made him want to touch it, and to _be touched_ by Lance. He was gonna have to face these feelings some time, so why not now? It was still a few hours until dinner.

“Lance?”

Lance showed that he was listening by planting a kiss on Keith’s neck, which made the latter shiver.

“Lately I’ve been having these… feelings.”

Lance didn’t seem much unfazed by his words. He kept nuzzling him from behind. “Good ones?”

“I’m – I’m not sure. I think so.”

“What kind are they? Maybe I can help you deal with them.”

Oh, he probably could. Keith closed his eyes, so he could face his embarrassment easier. “Just, at moments, like this, when I can feel you so close against me – or when I… see you train… and stuff… uhm…” He clenched his eyes shut even tighter. Admitting this made him feel extremely flustered. His voice became a little softer. “I… kind of… react.”

“React?”

“You know… in _places_.”

He could feel Lance lifting his chin from his shoulder, and he knew that Lance was looking at the side of his head.

“Keith,” Lance began then. “Do you want to have sex with me?”

It was impossible to detect what kind of answer Lance wanted to hear by the tone of the question, so Keith flinched, covered his eyes with his hands and mumbled, “...Maybe.”

“You do?!”

Now it became clear that the answer Lance had been hoping to hear was an affirmative one.

“Oh hell yes, I’ve been wanting to do it too, but I was never sure how to address it.” Lance took a strong hold of Keith’s body again and pressed the side of his face against Keith’s neck. “I think we could absolutely make it happen.”

Keith turned around in his embrace to look at him in return. “You want to do it too?” He felt so relieved that he wanted to laugh.

“Yeah, naturally,” Lance said. “I’ve been holding you so close these past few months, and to be honest started craving you when I saw you train.”

“That’s mutual then,” Keith muttered.

“Yeah.” Lance let go of Keith and twisted his torso a little, so they could look at each other. “Now we just have to decide, you know, who does what.”

Keith felt the blood rise to his cheeks. “I’ve been thinking about it. And…” He brought a hand to his face and rubbed his forehead before continuing, “I think you should do it. After all, you have experience with, you know…”

Lance chuckled. “‘Sticking it in’?”

Keith turned a little redder. “Yeah.”

“It’d be my pleasure. But I’ve never had sex with a guy, so we should probably prepare everything well.”

Keith agreed, but yet he would’ve loved to get down to it today. It probably showed on his face.

“So… maybe we could start by getting used to each other’s bodies first?”

“How do you mean?”

Lance slowly began sliding his hands over Keith’s arms. “You know, taking off each other’s clothes, just looking and touching a little.”

That felt like a wonderful idea. Keith nodded eagerly, and turned around to face Lance fully. “Yes, that sounds good.”

A smile spread over Lance’s face. “Alright then.” He took the hem of Keith’s shirt with both hands. “Can I?”

His boyfriend nodded, and Lance pulled the shirt slowly up over Keith’s torso. Keith raised his arms so that the clothing would slide off smoothly, which gave Lance a beautiful vision on his tensing chest muscles before the shirt was fully over Keith’s head. He wanted to scold himself when his mouth actually started watering. He pulled the shirt off and threw it on the floor. “Your turn.”

Keith, too, pulled the shirt slowly over Lance’s head and let his eyes roam lustfully over his torso in the process. He threw it on the pile on the floor that as of now only consisted of his own shirt, his eyes never leaving Lance’s body.

“I knew you liked what you saw back then,” Lance grinned.

Keith rolled with his eyes, leaned a little closer and whispered, “Can I touch you?”

Lance took a deep breath. “Absolutely.”

Keith raised his hands. It felt as if his heart was beating in every single one of his limbs. He softly placed his hands on Lance’s shoulders, moved down slowly over his pecs, down to his stomach. He had to bite his lip.

“Can I touch you too?”

“Yeah,” Keith whispered. Lance started by touching Keith’s neck, and the latter shivered as soon as he felt those hands on him. Lance moved down slowly, and slid with his fingers over Keith’s nipples when he reached his chest. They became hard embarrassingly quickly.

“Does that feel good?” Lance asked softly, as he rubbed over them again. Keith shuddered and nodded slowly, too embarrassed to talk. His own hands had started travelling to Lance’s back by now, and he revelled in the feeling of Lance’s firm muscles underneath his fingertips. Lance’s hands moved to Keith’s stomach, and on to his hips.

“Come a little closer,” he whispered. Keith shuffled forward on his knees, until there was about four inches between their torsos. When he was settled, Lance bent forward and kissed Keith on the mouth.

It became a wonderful and exciting explore session. They felt along each other’s spines, over each other’s shoulders and arms, chests and stomachs, until Lance reached Keith’s lower back and halted.

“Can I go a little further?” he asked softly.

Keith, knowing what was about to come, nodded nervously.

Lance probed with his fingertips in the little space between Keith’s back and his jeans. He couldn’t get much further though, so he kissed Keith again and whispered, “Can you take off your belt?”

Keith nodded, and silently, with trembling hands started fumbling with his belt until it came off. He pulled it from his jeans and dropped it on the floor next to their shirts.

In order to distract Keith from his visible nerves, Lance captured his lips with his own as his hands slid inside Keith’s boxers and took a hold of his ass. Keith hummed against his lips, buckling his hips to both move his body closer to Lance’s and to give Lance more access. When Lance softly squeezed Keith’s butt, the latter let go of Lance’s lips and breathed a soft, and rather arousing little “oh!”

Lance breathed in sharply, feeling his body take over with desire. He pulled Keith a little closer and whispered, “You like that place, huh?”

“It just feels good when you touch me there,” Keith admitted softly, too nervous to look Lance in the eyes.

“It sure feels good to touch as well.” Lance kissed Keith again as he pulled the skin of Keith’s ass upwards and kneaded it firmly. Those movements when straight to Keith’s cock and he dug his nails into Lance’s shoulders. He pushed his tongue inside Lance’s mouth, his growing arousal blowing all reason out of his mind and replacing it with instinct. He buckled his hips again, felt his hardening length brush against Lance’s and moaned softly.

“Touch me more,” he whispered. Lance didn’t need to be told twice. He let go of Keith’s ass with his right hand, brought it to the front, pulled down Keith’s zipper and tugged down the jeans and boxers, exposing Keith’s cock to the open air. Keith let out a satisfied little whine when he felt Lance’s hand take a hold of his growing length.

“You’re really going to have to stop making such sexy noises,” Lance mumbled against Keith’s lips, stroking him slowly.

“It feels way too fucking good to do that,” Keith breathed over Lance’s cheek. Lance duck down with his head and took Keith’s left nipple into his mouth.

“Woah,” Keith huffed. Lance gave Keith’s cock a firm tug when he sucked his nipple deeper into his mouth, and Keith jolted. “Holy shit, Lance,” he groaned, as he felt Lance’s hand sliding the skin of his cock over the head. “ _Don’t stop_.”

“Sure thing,” Lance mumbled against Keith’s chest. He was getting pretty hard himself, so it didn’t take long until he let go of Keith’s cock and opened up his own pants, so that he could touch them together.

That was the first time Keith got a sight of Lance’s dick, and it set his entire chest on fire. He brought one of the hands that had been laying around Lance’s shoulders down and took it into his hand.

“Yes,” Lance breathed. “Now stroke it slowly.” 

Keith did so, in the same manner as he was used to doing it to himself. Lance moaned against Keith’s skin, and, squeezing his ass, pulled him closer so that he could touch their cocks together.

Keith was holding onto Lance with his free hand, scraping with his nails over the skin as he felt his and Lance’s hand working together on their lengths. It felt so good that his mind had turned completely hazy, and he couldn’t think of anything else than Lance, his still growing arousal, and the movements on their lower halves.

He couldn’t hold in his whimper when Lance touched the head again.

“I’m so gonna enjoy doing you,” Lance murmured, taking Keith’s nipple into his mouth again and sucking.

Keith was pretty sure he could come any second.

“If you’re already making such sounds now, I can’t wait to find out how you sound when I’m thrusting my dick into all the right spots.”

Keith actually full-on gasped. The dirty talk did things to him he didn’t even think were possible.

He knew there was still a lot to figure out and discuss before they got to it, but right now, he didn’t want anything more than to get fucked into the mattress by Lance.

He took their lengths in his hand and sped up the pace.

“Are you – close?” Lance whispered, jolting when he felt Keith’s enthusiasm. “'Cause I sure am.”

Keith was breathing hard. For a while he had been rolling his hips into their hands to create more friction, and he was now getting dangerously close.

“Kiss me,” he begged Lance. His boyfriend raised his head and locked their lips together, stroking faster and squeezing his ass again.

Keith came, moaning into his boyfriend’s mouth. While Lance stroked him through his orgasm he followed quickly after, grunting and biting Keith’s bottom lip as their semen spilled over their hands.

Keith lapped with his tongue inside Lance’s mouth, panting as he came down from his high. It took them both a good ten seconds until they were capable of speaking again.

“That felt so fucking good,” Keith whispered, while Lance kept stroking their cocks slowly until they had gone completely soft. He placed his free and not-with-semen-covered hand on the side of Lance’s face. “Did you feel good too?”

“Yes,” Lance breathed. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt better.”

Keith chuckled softly. “Good.”

Lance finally let go of Keith’s ass, and reached to his nightstand, opening up the upper drawing and pulling a roll with toilet paper out of it.

“Let’s clean up,” he said with a grin. “We sure came a lot.”

“We did,” Keith said, scrunching his face feeling the stickiness between them. “I feel like I’ve been pent up for months.”

Lance halted in his movements and glanced up at Keith. “You’re not telling me you never jerk off?”

Keith rolled with his eyes. “Of course I jerk off. But it was never so satisfying to do it on my own, not when I was secretly craving to do it with you instead.”

Lance smirked. “I feel that. I’d been willing to wait as long as possible until you wanted it, but it was definitely gonna be hard.”

“But luckily we were on the same horny page,” Keith chuckled.

Lance finished cleaning up and pulled his boxers back up. He looked at Keith with a cheeky glint in his eyes. “We're super compatible, after all.”

~

After their first sexual encounter that afternoon, holding back was even more impossible than ever. Almost as soon as they were alone they reached out to each other and touched each other at all the forbidden places. They had elevated their relationship to an incredibly high place, and they were both too excited to keep their hands to themselves. Sometimes they even skipped a lesson or lunch to be together and touch each other.

The sexual activities turned a little more intense than just jerking off together. It went from handjobs, to blowjobs and more, and when they had gotten carried away so far that they reached the stage of thigh fucking, they knew it wasn’t going to take long before they’d go all the way. So they decided to get prepared.

One evening they sat down in front of Lance’s laptop. Keith had pulled the chair that was behind his own to sit next to Lance and look at the screen. Lance opened up Google.

“I’ve done some research, of course, but maybe it’s best to do it together,” he said, as he typed “sex between men” in the search bar. “Because it’s probably not gonna be that easy and we wanna do it right, don’t we?”

“Yep,” Keith said. Since he was going to be the one to take it in first, he wanted to take every possible precaution to make sure it would go well.

They found many interesting websites with a lot of information, so they were peering at the screen for a good fifty minutes until they decided to speak again.

“So, we’re gonna need lube, that’s for sure,” Lance said. He looked at Keith. “Do they sell that in the Garrison Mart?”

Keith turned a little red. “I guess so, but I don’t think I’d actually wanna go there to buy it.”

“That’s true, everybody will know what we’re up to right away,” Lance said, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.

“If they don’t already,” Keith added in a salty tone, remembering Nadia’s face as they entered the classroom after skipping the hour before.

Lance chuckled uncomfortably. “Yeah. They’ve probably figured it out. But I get your point, I don’t really wanna go out there and buy it either.” He opened up another tab. “Should we order it?”

“I think that’s a better idea,” Keith answered, pulling his chair a little closer to the desk. Lance searched for the kind that had been recommended on the forums they’d seen, and found a quality one that wasn’t too expensive.

“It might take a few days until it’s here, though,” he said, peering at the delivery description. He turned his face to Keith and grinned. “Will we be able to hold out that long?”

Keith smirked in response. “Barely.”

Lance laughed, brought the cursor to the “order now” button, looked questioningly at Keith, and clicked when his boyfriend nodded. He typed in their address and sent the order away.

“Alright,” he said and sighed. “It’ll be here in about four days.”

“Great,” Keith replied. He placed his elbow on the desk and leaned his cheek in his hand, looking at Lance. “And… what about condoms?”

Lance was quiet, thinking about it.

“What feels best?” Keith asked him. He hated thinking about Lance having sex with someone else, but the fact that he had experience was pretty convenient right now.

“Uhm, well… without feels best, but…” He pursed his lips, pondering. “Chances are that, you know… stuff might get inside, and all.”

“I see,” Keith answered.

“But I don’t mind either,” Lance said with a shrug. “You can decide.”

Keith thought about it for a few seconds. “Well, I want to do what feels best for both of us. You’re safe, right?”

Lance nodded. “Yep.”

“I know from the medical examination in our first year that I am too, and I’ve never done anything with anyone, so…” Keith smiled. “I suggest we do without.”

Lance smiled back. “Alright. And I still have a package left, so if we change our minds that’s also fine.”

“Sounds good,” Keith said with a nod.

“Are you nervous?” Lance asked, propping his hand under his chin and studying Keith’s face.

“Not really,” Keith shrugged. He put his underarms on the desk and rested his chin on them. From there he looked at Lance cheekily. “Just excited.”

Lance grinned. “So am I. I bet it’s gonna be great.”

~

The package indeed arrived after four days. Keith went down to the entrance, where all their post boxes were, one for each dorm room and professor. The package had been put inside, and Keith took it with him to their bedroom, where Lance was chilling on his bed.

“It’s here,” Keith said, after the doors had closed behind him with a _zweep_.

Lance looked up from his book. “Oh shit, for real?” He got up and closed his novel. “You wanna… try it now?”

Keith was almost trembling with excitement. It was a Friday evening, they had no homework and nothing to do tomorrow, and all the time on their hands. He nodded. “Yes. You?”

Lance nodded in return, starting to feel a little nervous himself. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

They started by both heading to the showers, where Keith tried to clean himself as much as possible. When they got back to their room, they were both extremely nervous.

“I know we’ve read a lot of stuff online,” Lance told Keith when they were sitting on Keith’s bed. “But let’s just try to focus on what we like best, and not on what they said online that should feel best, alright?”

Keith nodded. “Yeah. Let’s just try some things out, and if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work.”

“Yes,” Lance said with a relieved nod.

“Let’s just start out how we always start out, alright?” Keith said, wringing his hands. “I think that’d make everything most comfortable.”

“Let’s do that,” Lance replied. He placed the bottle of lube on Keith’s nightstand, as they weren’t going to have to use it right away.

Despite their nerves, the tension was just as wonderfully sexual as it always was. As soon as they had looked in each other’s eyes, exchanged a few kisses and had pulled off each other’s shirts, they landed into that same heated atmosphere that had been clouding their physical interactions of the last few weeks. They kissed slowly, rubbing their clothed lengths together, and touching each other everywhere they could reach. Keith had come to like it a lot when Lance sucked his nipples, and Lance was only too happy to oblige – especially since it caused these arousing sounds to leave Keith’s mouth.

He sucked on both of those nipples until they were hard and glistening, after which he went down to Keith’s boxers and pulled them off slowly, revealing his cock. He stroked it a few times, but it didn’t need much touching before it was already rock hard.

“You’re so hot,” Lance mumbled, sliding his hand over Keith’s abs down to where he was holding his length.

“You’re the hotter one,” Keith mumbled in an aroused voice, watching Lance play with his balls a little, after which he took the head of Keith’s cock into his mouth. Keith groaned and buckled his hips upwards, thrusting his dick into Lance, but Lance took Keith’s hips and pinned them to the bed, so that Keith wouldn’t accidentally hit the back of his throat and activate his gag reflex. Lance slowly slid up and down over Keith’s length with his mouth, palming his own hardening cock through his underwear. Eventually he took it out and stroked it slowly.

He slid his mouth off of Keith’s cock and looked at him. “Pull up your legs,” he told him.

Keith knew it was gonna happen now, but he had been desiring this for weeks, so the nerves that he had suffered from so much before had now completely been taken over by arousal, and he was ready to go further than they’d ever gone.

Lance opened the lid, turned the bottle upside down and let some lube dribble onto his fingers. He closed it again and laid it next to him.

“Are you ready, my love?” he asked Keith.

Keith, holding up his legs by the backs of his knees and not trying to think about the concept of embarrassment, nodded.

Lance pressed the tip of his index finger against Keith’s hole, and pushed inside. After probing a little and slowly thrusting it in and out, he looked up at Keith. “How’s that?”

“It’s fine,” Keith grunted with his eyes closed. “Doesn’t hurt.”

“That’s good,” Lance said with a relieved tone in his voice. He thrusted a little deeper, probing here and there a little more before carefully aligning his middle finger and pushing it along with his index finger.

Keith hissed softly, and Lance immediately halted in his movements.

“Are you okay?” he asked, studying Keith’s face carefully.

“Yeah,” Keith whispered. “Let me… adjust for a little.”

Lance kept his fingers still, feeling the tightness of Keith’s asshole firmly around his fingers. Damn, he’d be amazed if he’d get to push his dick inside today.

It took Keith about half a minute until he said, “Alright. Keep going.”

“You sure?” Lance asked, but when Keith nodded, he didn’t hesitate anymore. He repeated the motions he’d performed before, but now with two fingers instead of one. He noticed Keith was fighting hard to relax, but with success: eventually he had gotten used to two fingers, and was begging for a third.

“You’re such a champ, Keith,” Lance said genuinely, as he added some extra lube to his fingers before pushing the third finger inside. “You’re incredible.”

Keith laughed softly. “Thanks. I try.”

Lance chuckled in return. The atmosphere became a little looser after this verbal exchange, and Lance started working on Keith’s ass with three fingers inside him, getting more optimistic by the second. Since Keith was still pretty tight, he decided to help him relax a little by distracting him. While wrapping his free hand around his own cock, he took Keith’s in his mouth again.

Keith had been keeping his eyes closed, so he hadn’t seen that coming. He immediately buckled his hips with a gasp, clenching down on Lance’s fingers. “Lance!” he exclaimed in a punishing tone. But Lance didn’t respond, curling his fingers inside Keith’s ass and taking his cock deep. Keith moaned hard as he clenched down again. “You’re gonna kill me,” he breathed. “It feels so good.”

Lance slid his mouth off of Keith’s cock with a _pop_ and looked at him. “I’m glad,” he said, still stroking himself. “How great would it be if I found your prostate?”

“Probably really fucking amazing,” Keith groaned. He let go of one of his legs and put his arm over his eyes. “Please keep looking.”

“For you I’d do anything,” Lance said. “Especially finding your sweet spot.”

He kept probing into Keith’s asshole with three fingers, curling and uncurling them, looking for the right place. At the moment when he was knuckles deep inside Keith and curled his fingers hard, Keith actually spasmed.

“Holy _shit_ ,” he moaned, clenching down on Lance and wrapping his legs around his neck. “That’s it, there!”

Lance responded with a smirk. “Found it.” And he curled his fingers again.

Keith buckled his hips upwards for the umpteenth time. “Oh my _god_ ,” he breathed. “Oh my god, that feels so good.”

Lance kept rubbing that same bulgy spot inside Keith, while the latter started trembling and shaking his hips, trying to get even more friction than he was already getting.

“Lance, I’m coming,” Keith warned him.

“Don’t you wanna come with my cock inside you?” Lance asked teasingly.

Keith threw his arm to the side and heaved his head. “ _I do_.”

“Alright,” Lance smirked, feeling so turned on that he felt like he’d come with only one thrust inside Keith. “Which position do you want?”

Keith contemplated the question for a second, then thought of the position that had the tendency to turn him on the strongest, and whispered, “From behind.”

“Alright,” Lance whispered back. He untangled Keith’s legs around his neck, got up, and helped Keith flip over.

In this position he had a great view over Keith’s ass, spread open and dripping with lube. His eyes glazed over with desire.

“Let me find your prostate in this position too,” he said with his jaws clenched together. He did that to withhold himself from completely giving in to lust. He pressed three fingers inside Keith in one go, which earned him a satisfied grunt, and probed and curled again until he’d found the right place. Keith jolted and heaved his upper body, leaning with his hands against the wall behind his bed. “That’s it,” he panted. “Now do me the best way you’ve ever done someone.”

Lance pulled out his fingers and shuffled closer on his knees. “You got it,” he said. He pressed the tip of his cock against Keith’s entrance, and pushed inside. It took him all his effort to not thrust too fast, since that would probably not be too comfortable for Keith. He pushed himself in as far as possible, and huffed with delight when he saw how deep Keith could take him.

“You’re amazing, Keith,” Lance grinned, holding him by the hips and pressing his mouth against Keith’s neck. Keith had his hips angled outward, so that his back was arched and Lance had great access to his ass. “Are you feeling alright?”

“ _Yes_.” Keith’s voice was filled with a desire Lance had never heard on him before, and the sound went straight to his cock. He pulled out slowly, with Keith panting in anticipation, and pushed inside a little faster.

“Ah!” Keith exclaimed. He groaned and bowed his head. “So _good_ , fuck.”

Lance pulled out a little faster this time, and thrust in quicker again. Keith made a soft and pleasured sound. Lance tried to angle his cock in a way that would hit Keith’s prostate, pulled back out, and rammed inside.

Keith clenched down on him _hard_ as a loud moan escaped his throat. “Lance!” he breathed. “That’s it, again, _please_.”

Lance was by now completely taken over by desire, all reason having flown out of the window. Right now he wanted nothing more than to fuck Keith so hard that he would still feel it next week.

“You’re so fucking hot, Keith,” Lance said, taking him by the hips, pulling out, and thrusting in at the exact same angle. Keith trembled. When Lance reached over to touch his dick, he noticed that it was leaking with precum.

Keith almost sobbed when he said his next words, “It feels so good, Lance. I can’t…”

“Yes you can,” Lance mumbled. He bent forward and brought his mouth close to Keith’s ear. “I’m gonna do you so well that you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.”

Keith whined in response and clenched down on Lance again. After a few seconds he managed to say, “Go ahead.”

These words of permission were everything Lance needed to let go of all his reasonable strings. He stopped thinking completely and thrust inside as deep as possible. He reacted only to the feelings of his dick and the reactions his thrusts got out of Keith. With these two guides telling him what to do, he fucked Keith so hard that the latter came soon after, almost _screaming_ in pleasure, spilling all his cum over the bedroom wall. He clenched down so hard on Lance that it became almost impossible to keep thrusting, and the tight friction became too much. He spilled all his semen inside that tight asshole, holding Keith’s hips so strongly that he knew he was going to cause bruises.

He kept fucking Keith throughout his own orgasm, until there was no more seed left to spill. He pulled out with a squelching sound, while Keith slumped against the wall next to his bed.

“Holy shit,” Keith panted, trying to hold himself up with his hands on the wall. “That was so good, Lance. I knew you were gonna be good at this.”

Lance was still panting hard himself, coming down from that incredible orgasm. He took a hold of Keith so that he wouldn’t have to hold himself up.

“I’m sorry, Keith, I came inside you,” he said, pressing his face against Keith’s neck.

“Not like I care,” Keith laughed. “I was already prepared for it. And it felt really good when you did it.”

“Oh,” Lance said with a smile, kissing Keith’s neck. “That’s great.”

Keith grunted when he tried to sit up. “Damn, I’m gonna be so sore tomorrow.”

Lance snickered. “That means we did it right.”

Keith reached behind him and held Lance’s head by the back. “It _definitely_ felt right.”

After sitting in each other’s arms for a few minutes, calming down completely and letting their bodies rest a little, Lance said, “We should go get cleaned up.”

“Yeah. Probably.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more glad that our room is next to the bathroom than on this very day.” He clambered off the bed and took the roll of toilet paper again, cleaned up as much of himself and Keith as possible, and passed the roll on to Keith so he could clean the wall. Then he stepped to the door, looked outside really quickly and stretched out his hand to Keith. “Can you walk?”

Keith snorted. “No.”

Lance giggled, came over to the bed and hauled Keith up. “I’ll take full responsibility, come on.”

A pout appeared on Keith’s face when he was cradled tightly in Lance’s arms like a child. “Stupid, buff, handsome guy,” he grumbled.

Lance snickered. “I love you too.” As Lance carried him through the corridor he said, “Now I’m counting on you to do me somewhere in the future too.”

Keith raised his eyebrows and leaned back a little, so that he could look in Lance’s face. “Wait, you really want that?”

“Yeah!” Lance said optimistically. “You looked like you were feeling really good; I bet it’d feel great to be done by you, too.”

“Oh.” Keith hadn’t seen that confession coming. He blinked a few times and thought about it. “Well. Sure, I won’t mind trying that out.”

“Nice,” Lance said with a grin, and he kicked the bathroom door open.

They had to contain themselves not to do it again in the shower. They made out against the bathroom wall all the while that Lance cleaned Keith’s asshole, with Keith having his arms and legs wrapped around Lance’s body as Lance held him pressed against the cold stones. It both turned them on intensely, but since they didn’t bring the lube and Lance knew that penetration in the shower didn’t always go as smoothly as porn videos made it seem, they kept it at intense snogging and jerking each other off one more time. They returned to their room tired but satisfied, and after cleaning the wall a little more thoroughly, the two went to sleep soundly in Lance’s bed.

~

Now their sexual life had gotten even more exciting, and the two enjoyed it to the fullest. Even though Lance had said he wanted to bottom sometime too, Keith had gotten a huge taste for it and wasn’t going to let Lance off the hook easily. Most of the time he let Lance top him in missionary or doggy style, but when he was in a dominant mood he loved to climb on top of Lance, straddle him and ride him until sunrise.

They had a lot of fun.

When the end of their fifth year and the start of summer vacation were approaching, Lance sat Keith down on his bed.

“Alright, I know what you’re doing,” Lance said, crossing his arms.

Keith raised his eyebrows in an innocent manner. “What am I doing?”

“You’re trying to distract me from my wish to be topped by you!” he said, pointing a finger at Keith.

A smug smirk spread over Keith’s face. “Am I now?”

“Yes. And to my embarrassment I have to say that you’ve been pretty successful over the past few months. But not anymore!” He took a step forward, sat down on Keith’s lap with his legs on either side and put his arms around his neck. “I know what I want for my birthday.”

Keith chuckled, taking a hold of Lance’s hips. “Let me guess: my dick?”

Lance pursed his lips. “That’s sorta a blunt way of saying it, but…” He shrugged, “not untrue! I want you to do me on my birthday.”

Even if Keith had wanted to deny, he wouldn’t be able to. Just the way Lance was asking for it was so cute that he could never say no to him. He kissed those pursed lips and put his arms around him. “Alright, alright. I’ll give you me as top on your birthday, next to the next pair of 'Happy La – Birthday nce' socks.”

Lance grinned. “I’ll wear them while we do it.”

His boyfriend pulled him closer. “Great idea.”

~

But they weren’t going to be able to look forward to it just yet. One week before the start of summer, Shiro suddenly called Keith over to his office. Adam was there too, but he had a look on his face that said that he already knew what this was about.

“Welcome Keith. Sit down,” Shiro told Keith with a smile, and he did so. “So, I have some partly exciting, partly less-exciting news.” He sat down behind his desk and put his underarms on the tabletop. “I’ve been selected as one of the pilots for an important mission to Kerberos, one of Pluto’s moons.”

Keith’s eyes widened. “Wow, for real?! That’s awesome, right?! Congratulations!”

Shiro smiled. “Thanks, I’m glad to see you’re so excited. But the mission is going to take a while. Travelling to and from Kerberos will take a few months, and we’ll be staying there to collect samples and do a lot of research too. It’d mean I won’t be here during your last year.”

Keith’s excitement disappeared like snow in the sun, and he slumped back down into his chair. “I see…”

“Of course Adam will still be here, so…” Shiro said. He looked at his hands with a sad smile. “I’ll miss you guys a lot, of course.”

“Yeah,” Keith wasn’t sure what to say. Ever since his adoption he hadn’t been away from either Shiro or Adam for more than a few weeks. He wondered how it’d make him feel, but… “It will only be a year right? It’ll be over before we know it.”

“That’s definitely true,” Shiro nodded. “And I’ll be in time for your graduation, if I’m correct.”

“I’m sure you will,” Adam said. “That’s always a few months after finals.”

Keith looked from Adam to Shiro. “So when are you leaving? And who are you going with?”

“We’ll leave one week before the new school year starts, and I’ll be going with Sam and Matt Holt.”

Keith blinked. “Pidge’s family?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh man, I already get icky thinking about being away from just you for a year; I can’t imagine how she must be feeling.”

Shiro smiled warmly at him. “I’m not looking forward to having to miss you two either. We might be able to stay in touch with the right technology.”

“Really?” Keith said, relief on his face. “That’d be great.”

“I’m sure it’s going to be alright,” Adam said, smiling from his husband to his son. “We’ll spend the summer in San Diego, wave Takashi goodbye when he leaves and welcome him back when he returns.”

“I’ll show you the aircraft we’ll be travelling with.” After saying those words, Shiro’s eyes suddenly started shimmering, proving to Keith that despite his composure, his dad was extremely excited about having been chosen. When he saw that ecstatic expression, Keith couldn’t help but smile and support the decision of his higher ups.

“I’m really proud,” he confessed. “You deserve it.”

Shiro closed his eyes happily. “Thank you, Keith. That means a lot to me.”

~

That summer, Keith, Shiro and Adam spent a lot of time together, to make many more memories before Shiro would leave for the mission. Naturally, however, Keith was by Lance’s side a lot as well. He loved being surrounded by people he loved so dearly like this, and it became a wonderful summer.

On Lance’s birthday, it was still more than a week before Shiro would leave, and Keith could comfortably take a break from hanging out with his dads to hang out with his boyfriend instead. He gave Lance the traditional birthday socks, a bunch of balloons and a beautiful couple ring with a red stone (he himself had one with a blue stone). “You only turn eighteen once,” Keith told him, explaining the sentiment behind such an expensive present. Lance was absolutely over the moon with all those gifts, but still he couldn’t withhold himself from leaning over and whispering in his boyfriend’s ear: “I can’t wait for the last one of my presents.”

Keith grinned, and without looking at him he teased, “Who says you’re getting it?”

“Oh, I know you’ll give it to me. You’re too kind not to.”

Keith scoffed. “Perhaps.”

But that word was all Lance needed to know that it was really going to happen, and he delightfully pressed a kiss on the side of Keith’s head.

When the end of the evening drew near, and the two of them were sitting by the fire by themselves, Keith looked over his shoulder to the dinner table, where everyone else of the family was still talking and drinking, including Lance’s young niece and nephew and all his siblings. Everyone was going to sleep over tonight.

“Are you sure we should do it here?” he whispered. “There are so many people today… they might hear us.”

Lance looked up from admiring the beautiful ring. “What? Oh, I wasn’t actually thinking we’d do it _inside_.”

He frowned. “What are you saying?” He shuffled closer and mumbled, “We’re _not_ going to do it on the beach again.”

Lance had to hold in a laugh. “No no, not the beach. I was thinking of…” He looked around him quickly to see if no one was listening, and then continued in a whisper, “the treehouse.”

“What?!”

Lance put his hand over Keith’s mouth. “Sssh, Keith!”

“Sorry, sorry,” Keith said, taking Lance’s hand and pulling it away from his mouth. “Are you serious? The treehouse? The first place where we hung out?”

“Yeah!” Lance practically beamed at his own idea. “That’s exactly why. And I’m pretty sure no one will hear us since it’s far away from both our houses and the streets.”

Keith sighed in defeat. “Fine. But let’s make sure we won’t leave any trails.”

A tinkling laugh escaped Lance’s mouth. “You talk as if we’re going to commit a crime. Relax! No one ever comes there anymore anyway, and I’ve already made preparations!”

Keith raised his eyebrows. “You have?”

Lance winked. “Yep.”

Keith nodded slowly. “Alright then. When are we going?”

“Let’s go to my room first and sneak out when everyone’s off to bed,” Lance said and smirked. “We’ve been good at sneaking out for years.”

“We’re masters of stealth,” Keith smiled, remembering Lance’s words when he first proposed stealing food from the cafeteria.

Lance took his hand and leaned against his shoulder. “We are.”

~

That night, when the rest of Lance’s family had gone to sleep, Lance gathered all the materials he had been collecting, and with those neatly in his arms pulled Keith along by his hand, down the stairs, through the garden and towards the treehouse. He clambered up first, blabbering on about how excited he was. Keith had a feeling he was actually pretty nervous, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t tense himself. It still didn’t sound like the best idea, and they had no way of guaranteeing that Lance would come even close to feeling as good as Keith when bottoming. But there was no going back now. He had promised Lance he’d do this, and he was determined to deliver.

Keith sighed with relief when they were nestled onto the floor, and he had seen through the window that the house was indeed pretty far away and all the lights were out. He’d never be able to face Lance’s family again if they discovered what they had been doing here.

Lance had put a great assortment of different blankets and pillows on the wooden floor, which looked incredibly comfortable. Keith had been worried that the hard underground would put a strain on their bodies, but he knew for sure that now it wouldn’t. It was also extremely hot outside, so doing it more or less in the open air would probably be more comfortable than in a closed-off bedroom.

“We can’t turn on the little lights, out of danger that people will see,” Lance said. “Which means we’re gonna have to do everything in the dark… but that's also pretty exciting, huh?”

“T-totally,” Keith stammered. He felt how Lance shuffled closer to him and took him in his arms.

“Don’t be nervous, okay? I know you’ll be great.”

Keith returned the embrace. “I hope so.”

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

“...Alright.”

They got down to it pretty soon. After their usual starting routine of kissing, undressing, sucking and touching, Lance was in front of Keith with his legs spread wide, ready for him to begin. Keith opened him up in the same way Lance had done to him, starting with one slick finger and slowly adding more while Lance got adjusted to them. He could feel the tightness firm around him, but Lance didn’t complain once and seemed to be able to take it pretty well.

“How is it?” Keith inquired at last, when he was three fingers in and Lance still hadn’t reacted that much.

“It’s… pretty fine?” he answered, almost as if he was wondering out loud how he was feeling. “Your fingers feel good. I wonder what’ll happen when they find my – _holy fuck_!”

Lance’s entire body reacted when Keith reached a certain spot, jolting so hard that it startled Keith. Lance’s upper body leaped forward and suddenly Keith felt his boyfriend’s hands around his wrist. He was already preparing to pull out, but Lance thrust him back inside and let out an incredibly arousing whine when Keith’s fingers pushed into that spot again. “D-do that again!”

Keith’s heart started beating in his ears. That was some of the hottest shit he’d ever seen Lance do. He swallowed to stay focused. “Okay…” And he brushed over that spot once more, curling his fingers and pressing it over and over again, in the way he liked it when Lance did it to him.

“Hoooly shit,” Lance breathed. His hips were shaking with pleasure. “No no no, you gotta stop now or I’ll come!”

“You don’t want to?”

“Nooooo,” Lance whined. “I want you to – with your – _nnngh_.” Again he pushed Keith’s fingers deeper inside himself, using them to feel good. Keith could feel his heartbeat speed up.

“Alright,” he whispered. He pulled out his fingers, took out his dick from his underwear, hardened by the hot sounds coming from Lance’s mouth and the fact that he had more or less fucked himself on Keith’s fingers, and lined himself up. “I hope it won’t hurt,” he mumbled. “Do you want it… just like this?”

“Yes,” Lance breathed, feeling the tip of Keith’s cock against his hole and wishing it would push inside already. “If you’re close enough, I can see your face.”

Keith leaned forward a little more and let his forehead rest against Lance’s. “Yep,” he whispered. “Here I go.”

And he pushed inside slowly. Lance made a strained noise when he did so, and Keith could feel that he was still ridiculously tight. But after some intense seconds, he was almost all the way in. He could finally see Lance, and wanted to sigh with relief when he saw a face he knew very well – a face which proved that Lance was feeling extremely good. His head was tilted back a little, his forehead glistening with sweat and his mouth slightly open, releasing these soft and pleasured pants.

Keith himself couldn’t even begin to describe what he was feeling. Even though they’d been fucking for months, this was the first time he had ever been inside Lance (not counting his mouth). Heck, this was the first time he’d ever been inside _anyone_ , and the tightness caused an incredible friction when he moved. The fact that it was Lance he was doing this to and the other fact that it was apparently making him feel really good, made the experience already unforgettable, and they hadn’t even fully started.

He pulled out slowly and carefully, thrusting back in a little faster and grunting satisfied at the feeling. Lance let out an adorable little sound, which flipped switches inside Keith he didn’t even know he had in there. He pulled out a little faster this time, and pushed back in.

“ _Yes_ ,” Lance breathed when he felt it. “That’s the spot.”

With those words, Lance personally flipped the very last switch inside Keith, and desire took over. Before Keith knew it, he heaved himself up, took Lance by the backs of his knees, pushed them further apart, and slammed inside.

Lance let out a short, but extremely aroused moan, and reached to the front to wrap both hands around his cock.

“That’s it,” Keith heard himself say when Lance started pleasuring himself. “Moan for me, my beautiful Lance.” Lance clenched around him and whimpered, speeding up his own movements, spreading his legs even wider and trying his best to thrust his hips back into Keith. Lance’s behaviour turned Keith on so much that he couldn’t hold himself back, and he sped up the pace without restraint. It didn’t take even five thrusts against Lance’s prostate before Lance came wonderfully, moaning Keith’s name as if it was the only word he knew.

But Keith wasn’t finished yet, and Lance would know it. He didn’t slow down at all when Lance’s semen spurted all over his hands and stomach, ramming into his prostate as if nothing had happened.

“Aaaah, Keith!” Lance breathed.

“Haven’t – had – enough?” Keith asked, forming a word after each thrust.

Lance had resumed stroking himself softly with both hands, keeping his arousal intact. “As long as – you haven’t come – I won’t have,” he managed to say, gasping between every group of words.

Keith gave him a firm thrust, and Lance’s hole tightened around him. “Sexy _and_ sweet? That’s the perfect combination for a perfect bottom.”

Lance actually groaned. “God – Keith, don’t stop – _hngh_ – saying such things. It’s so hot.”

Keith was happy to hear that, since he hadn’t checked whether Lance truly liked what he’d been saying and he wouldn't want to do anything that made him uncomfortable. But now he had confirmation that it was appreciated, so he could gladly give in to those flipped switches of dominance and seduction. He bent forward, brought his mouth close to Lance’s ear and said in a low voice, “Look at you, jerking yourself off while I’m fucking you hard – you’re a horny little thing, aren’t you?”

“Yes!” Lance moaned in return. “ _I am_.”

“And horny boys should be punished, don’t you think?”

Lance pushed back with his hips against Keith in excitement. “ _I do_.”

“I’m glad you agree. Then turn around and raise that cute little butt.”

Keith pulled out with a squelching sound, so that Lance could turn around more easily. Lance seemed super greedy while he flipped over quickly and pushed his ass in the air, resting his face against the blanket under him. “Punish me,” he whispered.

Keith raised his hand, and slapped Lance’s ass with slight force. Lance jolted and gasped, squirming excitedly when he felt the sting on his ass. “Now the other one,” he whispered.

“Ah, I see,” Keith said, raising his hand again. “You like this, huh?”

“ _God_ yes,” Lance sighed, and jolted again when Keith’s hand landed on his other ass cheek. Then he felt Keith taking his hips.

“I’m going in again,” he warned.

Lance could only grunt in satisfaction, and moaned when he felt Keith’s dick thrusting deep inside once more. His hand immediately returned to his own cock, which hadn’t gone soft at all since he had come, and began jerking off again.

“You’re so sexy like this…” Keith breathed. He was starting to get really close, and he would love to make Lance come one more time. If dirty talk was going to help with that, he would happily oblige. He leaned over Lance’s back, thrusted deep inside, and while keeping himself seethed like that, brought his mouth close to Lance’s ear and said in a breathy voice, “You really like my dick, hm? You’re lucky, ‘cause it’s all yours.”

Lance whimpered, and sped up his jerking motions. He started wiggling his hips, encouraging Keith to keep thrusting instead of staying still like that.

“How would you feel if I pumped my seed deep inside that greedy hole of yours? Would that make you happy?”

Lance made some vague noise, too engulfed in pleasure to reply.

Keith moved his hips back and rammed back inside, earning him a wonderful, pleasured whine from Lance. “Well? I won’t know if you won’t answer.”

“It would,” Lance whispered softly, trying to move underneath Keith and thrust his hips into that dick.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.” Keith pressed his teeth against Lance’s nape and bit softly into the skin. “Would it?”

“Yes! Ah… It would!”

“So, what do you want?”

Lance actually groaned in frustration. He whipped his head around, looked Keith straight in the eye and said, his voice strained by the pleasure Keith’s cock and his own hand brought him, “Fuck me hard and pump your seed deep inside my ass.”

Keith smirked. “Any other requests?”

Lance raised a hand, put it behind Keith head and brought his mouth close to his. “Make me come as hard as I can,” Lance whispered, his voice filled with desire.

“Yes sir,” Keith said. “You’re about to receive the best Birthday Fuck you’ve ever had.”

“I’m already receiving it,” Lance said, pressing his face back against the sheet and smiling with his eyes closed.

“Good,” Keith said, smiling himself. “Alright, here I go.”

He pulled out almost completely, and then pushed himself back in with all his might.

“Oh yes,” Lance moaned, feeling that familiar, incredible pressure on his prostate. When Keith had thrust into it a few more times, he could feel the pressure in his abdomen increasing, telling him he was getting close again. The sounds escaping Keith’s mouth became louder and slightly higher, informing Lance that his boyfriend was about just as close as he was. The talking was over now, both of them working themselves and each other towards their orgasms. Eventually they were both whiny messes, quickening the pace and strongly increasing friction.

Lance came first, for the second time tonight, moaning into the blanket and shooting his semen over his hand and the sheet underneath him. His orgasm made his hole clench around Keith’s dick, which caused Keith to gasp and whimper. He needed only a few more thrusts, until he released his seed deep inside Lance, as promised, and kept thrusting until there was no more cum left. The two flopped down onto the blanket, Keith on top of Lance, and panted and wheezed for a few minutes until they’d completely gotten down from their climax.

Afterwards, Keith slowly slid his hands over Lance’s hips. “Are you okay?”

Lance looked up at him with a weak grin. “I’m great. You?”

“Yes, incredibly, but…” Keith clenched his eyes shut and dropped his face onto Lance’s back. “I can’t believe I did that to you.”

“Why? I thought it was awesome.”

“Yeah,” Keith smirked. “I noticed.”

“I _knew_ you had a dominant side!” Lance said triumphantly. “I knew it from the moment you were on top of me during training. That was some quality domineering you did there, love!”

Keith groaned in embarrassment. “If I knew this was gonna happen…”

“Hey, you only heeded my request,” Lance said soothingly. “And you did it in the best way possible.”

“I can’t believe I even spanked you.” Keith buried his face in his hands.

“Keith,” Lance began. “It was super hot. I’d gladly let you do it again.”

Keith raised his face and looked at Lance with a weak smile. “Alright then.”

“Now that we settled that…” Lance got up slowly, brought them both in sitting positions, moved closer to Keith and wrapped his arms around his neck, arching his chest into him. “Wanna go again? I kinda wanna try riding you now.”

Keith looked perplexed. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m very serious.” Lance moved one of his hands downwards, sliding it over Keith’s chest and down to his abdomen. “Please? Because it’s my eighteenth birthday?”

It became impossible for Keith to deny him when Lance relaxedly started playing with his cock. He sighed in defeat, leaned forward and kissed Lance on the mouth. “Happy birthday to you then, I guess,” he said softly.

“Happy birthday to me,” Lance grinned, and he kissed Keith back.

~

The morning after, they were both so sore that they could hardly get up. They’d ended up doing it three times that night, all with Lance on the bottom.

“Now that we know we both feel freaking good when taking it, we can do even more different things,” Lance said excitedly, folding one of the (clean) blankets they’d been doing it on.

“Yeah,” Keith replied. “I’m really glad it works so well for you too.”

“Same. It’d get boring if we always did the same!”

Keith laughed. “We did it ‘the same’ for five months; I never got bored.”

“No, that’s true, these past few months were also pretty exciting.”

“But I get what you mean.” Keith took a few pillows and piled them on top of each other. “Now we can switch it up sometime.”

“I’m so looking forward to it.” Now Lance started collecting all the sheets that they’d been unable to keep clean – which were four out of six. He sighed. “How am I ever going to wash all these out without everyone noticing?”

Keith shot a glance at the mountain of blankets and laughed. “Do it when no one’s home?”

Lance pulled a face. “It’s summer vacation! That might take days!”

“Oh, right.” Keith thought deeply for a few seconds, and then gasped in delight. “My dads are out today! Clean them at my place!”

“Holy shit, that’s such a good idea!” Lance said, taking the pile of sheets in his arms. “Let’s go!”

Lance threw the dirty sheets through the trapdoor, down onto the grass, and headed down the ladder. Keith went after him and helped Lance carry the sheets to his house, where they washed them without anyone noticing. Meanwhile, they played lots of games and had a relaxing day after an intense night.

A little more than one week later, it was time to say goodbye to Shiro. The four of them (Shiro, Adam, Keith and Lance) flew with an arranged plane to the Garrison, from which the spaceship would take off. They said goodbye close to the ship, because of course Shiro was going to have to board before they could make the last preparations to leave. Keith was having an incredibly hard time, actually having to hold back his tears.

After Shiro had said goodbye to Adam, with a long, lingering kiss and the tightest hug Keith had ever seen them share, Shiro came to him.

“I still remember the day you joined our family like yesterday,” Shiro began, and Keith swallowed. “You were so small and vulnerable, and look at you now?” He smiled warmly and placed his hands on his son’s shoulders. “You’re about as tall as me, in your last year at the Galaxy Garrison, and you even found love.” He shot a small, grateful glance at Lance. “Keith, I am so, so proud of you, and I will think of you every day when I’m up there.” He moved forward and slowly wrapped his arms around him. Lance could see how tears formed at the edges of Shiro’s closed eyelids. “I’ll miss you so much.”

Lance noticed how Keith’s body started shaking, telling him that he was crying. Despite his tears, he managed to say a few words in return: “Thank you – Shiro, for everything. I wouldn’t be here without you.” Shiro tightened his embrace. “I don’t know what would’ve become of me if you and Adam hadn’t taken me in that day.”

Shiro leaned back so that he could look his son in the face. “I’m sure you would’ve become a great man nonetheless. You have it in you.” He reluctantly let go of Keith and took his face in his hands. “I love you Keith. I’ll see you in a year.”

He kissed Keith’s forehead and then turned to Lance, as Adam moved closer to Keith to put an arm around his trembling body.

“Lance, my man,” Shiro said, holding out his hand. “It’s been an honour to see you grow so much in both your life and your career at the Garrison. I know you’re going to be a great space explorer.”

“You’ll probably be back in time for that to happen,” Lance said with a grin, and he took Shiro’s outstretched hand.

“I hope I will,” Shiro replied. Then he looked shortly at Keith and back to Lance. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for Keith. I know you’ve been in his heart since the beginning. Take care of him while I’m away, alright?”

Lance had to swallow not to tear up himself. “You got it, Mr Shiro. Thank you for bringing Keith into my life and helping me with my studies.”

Shiro shook his head. “Anytime.” Then he took Lance in an embrace as well, before he turned around and headed to the aircraft, where Sam and Matt Holt were waiting for him. A few metres away from them, Lance and Keith could see Pidge with her mom and her dog, gazing at them sadly.

The three men walked to the entrance of the craft, turned around to wave at their families one more time, and went inside.

Keith grabbed Lance’s hand.

The three of them had to wait a few hours before the aircraft actually took off, but eventually the large engines of the machine started whirring. Fires appeared underneath its three body tubes, and slowly but steadily, under a raging noise, the ship took off.

They stood there, looking at how the spaceship grew smaller with the minute, Adam with his arm around Keith’s shoulders, and Keith’s hand holding Lance’s.

Even when the aircraft was completely out of sight, Keith didn’t want to go.

“I’m going back to the Garrison for now,” Adam told his son and Lance softly. “Meet me back in the cafeteria, alright?”

Lance nodded, and watched as Adam walked off, brushing a hand over his eyes.

Keith sighed deeply, and Lance squeezed his hand.

“I have so much to thank him for,” Keith said. “What if something happens to him?”

“It’s going to be alright,” Lance said, wrapping his arms around Keith from the side and resting his head against his. “He’s the best pilot who’s ever taught here. I’m sure he’ll know what to do whenever something happens.”

“Yeah, you’re right…”

“And you’re going to be alright, too.” Lance kissed his cheek. “And I’ll always be here for you, no matter what.”

Keith took a hold of the arms that were around his neck. “I know. I love you.”

“I love you too.” They stared at the horizon together, where the sun was slowly drawing closer to the earth’s surface. “Let’s watch the stars together tonight,” Lance suddenly proposed.

Keith smiled and looked up at the first star that was twinkling above their heads. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

And together they walked back to the Garrison, still completely unaware of the incredible adventure that would be waiting for them upon Shiro’s return.

~

A few months after, on a moon far away at the edges of the solar system, three men found themselves eye-in-eye with the biggest spaceship they’d ever seen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess the end of this fic is the beginning of something else, huh ;)))
> 
> And that's it!! Thank you so much for reading; I hope you liked it! I love these characters so much UGH I cannot deal. Let me know your thoughts if you have any, and perhaps until another time!! ^-^ (I've been considering writing an Adashi spin-off or an in-canon continuation, so we'll see!!)
> 
> It's been an honour flying with you boys!
> 
> All the love~!


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